Of Demons and Devils
by Unlimited Blade Works
Summary: Saving Hyoudou Issei had been something that Naruto did mostly because the kid was in the right place at the right time. Getting involved with Rias Gremory after doing so, well that had been something of a surprise. Still at least it would keep things interesting. In the words of the greatest Devil Hunter of all time "This Party's Getting Crazy! Let's Rock!"
1. Chapter 1

**Of Demons and Devils**

**Chapter One: Bingo!**

**Authors Note-**

Okay here's take two, let's just say the reception to the original chapter was less than stellar and more importantly when I wrote Naruto as more apathetic in the second chapter as he interacted with normal humans it bored the hell out of me.

So I finished the High School DxD anime and just started on the light novel series so here's hoping that this chapter goes's over a little better than the last one. As usual please do review on what you think can be improved upon as it can only help me.

As for Naruto joining Rias's Peerage or not I am currently undecided. I want to read a bit more of the light novel first so I can check out the rating games that she gets involved in before calling a final verdict there.

As for Naruto's personality in this he's kind of a mix between Devil May Cry 3 Dante and 16 year old Naruto for Shippuden. So he's quick to irritate if something annoys him and even quicker to anger though he does not forgive anywhere near as easily as Naruto from cannon does. Because some of the shit he lets people get away with is criminal. Case point being Sasuke, yes the kid was traumatized by Itachi and his Clan being killed I get that, hell I'm even sympathetic to a degree. But for fucks sake he pile drove Naruto onto solid stone with the intent to kill and then tried to kill him again when they met for the first time in Shippuden.

Now Naruto may not be the sharpest tool in the shed but even he should be able to see the writing on the wall here. And what was that thing he said to the Raikage about how Sasuke had been infected by the darkness of the ninja world, okay he may have even had a point with this but the fact of the matter is that Sasuke made his choices and now he has to pay for them. He does not get a free pass just because he was traumatised and is Naruto's friend that would be moronic, the world should simply not work like that and if he does not die for some of the shit he has pulled (and I know he won't) then I think when the manga ends I am going to be a very disappointed man.

And while I think about it can someone please tell me what is up with seemingly every body and their mothers loving the Naruto X Hinata pairing. Because I see so many people bash Sakura not because she is useless, which is in my opinion a legitimate reason to bash someone, but because she stalks Sasuke. Now correct me if I'm wrong but doesn't Hinata do the same thing to Naruto, you know follow him around in stalker like fashion. It's almost like she is a Naruto Fangirl instead of a Sasuke one, only she is quieter than a Sasuke fan girl and thank fuck for that because the last thing that show needs is another banshee.

While I'm on the subject of Hinata why is it that in most of the Naruto X Hinata stories that I give a go, and normally drop straight after I start because they are normally horrible Yet Again With A Little Extra Help seemingly being the exception. Why does he in the middle of the Chunin Exam when Neji is talking down to him and tells him that Hinata loves him and so on. Why the fuck does Naruto say that he knew that but was pretending to be oblivious so that she wouldn't be hurt by the village. He just fucking announces that he likes her to the whole goddamn village despite seemingly pretending to be oblivious to her affection because the village would hurt her if they knew that he knew and liked her back. The fuck?! So the village will hurt her if they know that she likes you and you like her back so you announce that you 'love' her in the middle of the Chunin Exams with damn near the whole village watching and Hinata hurt and more or less unable to defend herself, brilliant, just fucking brilliant. Why not just kill her yourself and save someone else the time and effort.

And you know what while I'm on a roll, who the fuck thought that Naruto X Sasuke or Naruto X Tobi or even Naruto X Orrochimaru would be a good idea? Seriously who the fuck thought this was a smart move!?

Okay I think I'm done, sorry about that but it's been building up for a while and I needed to get it off my chest. Enjoy. The bottom of the chapter has another small note thanks. Also if anyone feels compelled to answer the questions I posed during my rant please do so in a PM and do not clutter up the Review section.

Please thank Zimbolical for the BETA job.

**Story Start-**

The apartment was sparse, only the bare essentials had been put in. A single couch, coffee table, a T.V sitting on the floor and a small IPod sound system other than that the combined Kitchen, Living and Dining room didn't have any furniture in it. The Kitchen part of the room wasn't much better, only having an old second hand fridge and microwave that the apartment's occupant had been able to pick up cheap at a yard sale. They worked even if they didn't look particularly good, laying back on the couch while thumbing through a games magazine was a blond haired teenager. He appeared to be around seventeen, ice blue eyes, three whisker like birthmarks going across each cheek and sun kissed hair that had a few white high lights running through it his tanned skin marked him as being of Caucasian decent rather than Japanese. The teen wasn't wearing a shirt leaving his rather well muscled torso bare to the world proving that he took good care of himself.

Uzumaki Naruto yawned as he flipped another page of the magazine, hmmm that game didn't look too bad. The blond's right hand reached out swiping over the table to find his can of coke, completely ignoring the pair of pistols that were in easy reach. In Japan such firearms were illegal, but only if you got caught and Naruto had more than a few ways to hide them, Magic notwithstanding. The blond yawned again before reaching down and scratching his thigh ruffling the black material of his pants.

"Dear sweet hell I am bored." The half Devil remarked to himself while sighing and turning another page of the magazine. Naruto slowly pulled himself up from his reclining position on the couch and made his way to sound system flicking it on, 'Bless me with your gift of light! Righteous cause on judgment nights! Feel the sorrow the night has swallowed! Feel the freedom like no tomorrow!' Naruto smiled as he walked over to the kitchen and grabbed the box of cold Pizza off of the counter before returning to the couch and collapsing again the song still playing in the background. The teen quickly snagged a slice of one of his favourite treats, one that ranked in behind Ramen granted but it was still one of his favorite's, and took a large bite relishing the taste to the large Hawaiian. Honestly Naruto would have preferred Ramen but had yet to find a Ramen stand that made decent stuff at a reasonable price and delivered; the same could not be said for pizza. The blond sighed and picked up the magazine again, kicking his feet up onto the coffee table.

"Man I just wish something interesting would happen around here, I don't even care what it is." Naruto remarked in an off handed manner flipping another page of his magazine. Well he did suppose he could have gone into school but he had a personal policy of only turning up enough times a year to pass his current grade and no more. Naruto's ears twitched slightly as he heard the creaking sound that accompanied his front door opening and looked up, the blonds completely unconcerned nature easily masking the fact that he could have the two guns on the table in his hands and firing at whatever was coming through his doorway in less than a second. Standing in the doorway was an elderly gentleman wearing what looked to be a rather well made suit, Naruto sighed.

"Spoke to soon," The blond groused to himself as the older man walked into the apartment with a small smile on his face. He stood at a respectable one hundred and eighty six centimeter's, only six centimeter's above Naruto's own height. Kenji was someone the Old Man had introduced him to a few weeks after he had started taking care of the blond; he was also the first person that Naruto had gone to when Sparda had disappeared. Kenji had helped him get settled in this apartment and made sure he could live on his own; the man was also well versed in the Supernatural side of the world and would bring Naruto some jobs from time to time.

The problem was that most of the jobs were kind of boring, not at all the challenge that the blond hybrid had been hoping for. Sparda had trained him since was nine and Naruto had inherited the infamous Devils lust for battle and a good challenge.

Kenji almost never gave him any jobs that involved Devils or fighting, hell the only time that Naruto had actually been able to fight on a job that Kenji got him was when he ran into a Fallen Angel by complete accident while on a delivery and in perfect honesty that wasn't much of a fight at all. The other times that Naruto had been able to fight a Fallen Angel or Devil had been complete accidents and random meetings, still fights were the spice of life so it wasn't like Naruto was complaining about it.

"Good afternoon Naruto." Kenji greeted with a smile on his face, Naruto grumbled a little at the greeting, he was going to be given another boring job again, he could just feel it coming. "Now, now don't be like that my boy, I've got a job for you one that I'm sure you'll enjoy," The older man added, Naruto looked up from his magazine and threw it onto the table before him with a sigh, may as well hear the old man out.

"Tell me the rest of it Jiji, as much as the jobs you normally give me suck they do pay well." The blond seemed to brighten as he said that, "Any chance of it getting more exiting this time?" Naruto asked a tone of almost childlike enthusiasm in his voice, Kenji just laughed at his younger counterpart and ruffled the half Devils blond-white hair affectionately causing Naruto to complain even if he didn't actually do anything to stop the action.

"Oh I think you'll like this one Naruto," Kenju assured the younger man as he pulled a file out from a briefcase he had been carrying before placing it on the coffee table. The blond just looked down and raised an eyebrow, this was a little more formal than they normally did things maybe the old man really was telling the truth when he said that the job would be enjoyable this time. Kenji's face never lost its smile as he pulled out a picture and handed it to the half Devil still reclining on the couch. Naruto's eyes gave it a quick once over, a girl. Young, long black hair that went down to the middle of her back wearing a dress and clutching a rabbit, green eyes.

"Cute kid," Naruto responded after a second, "So what does she have to do with the job?" He questioned, Kenji's face lost its smile for the first time since he had entered the apartment.

"She is the job," The elderly man replied, "Kamachi Hiruka, daughter of a rather wealthy man. From what I know she's being held in a house on the outskirts of the city in a three story house, you know the kind that upper class families can afford. From what we can tell she's being held there for a ransom, the problem is that the ransom is being asked for by a Stray Devil." Kenji finished, Naruto just looked at him strangely.

"What the hell would a Stray Devil want with human money?" The blond asked confused, Kenji shrugged in return.

"Considering how most of them act I have no idea, but the point remains." The elderly man finished before smiling once more, though this time it was more challenging than it was friendly. "So can I convince you to take the job Naruto?" Kenji questioned, Naruto smiled in response.

"Of course you can, you should bring me jobs like this more often Kenji this is my kind of thing after all. Actually on that note why haven't you given me jobs like this before?" Naruto asked while pulling himself off of the couch, the half Devil no longer wondered how the elderly man got his information. Kenji always danced around the topic and more importantly it was always accurate so Naruto didn't pry too much, if the old man wanted to keep it a secret that badly then so be it.

"Maybe I will Naruto, maybe I will. As for the reason I haven't brought you any jobs like this before that's simple, even if you could have handled this when you were fourteen It is against my morale code to send someone that young into a life or death situation no matter how good they may be." Kenji stated, Naruto didn't bother to argue the point he'd been down that road with the old man before it was a dead end. A smirk came to Kenji's face as he threw out another piece of information that he knew would make Naruto work harder. "The reward for this job is quite sizable as well my boy, I don't think you'll find yourself disappointed by the pay." The older man added, causing the blond haired teenager to stop moving.

Sparda had left him plenty of money when he up and disappeared but Naruto preferred to not rely on the money that his adopted father left him. No that money was reserved for one purpose and one purpose only and until that particular job was done and dusted Naruto would not touch another cent in his adopted fathers account. There was no real reason for it other than that and even the reason that he had was pretty flimsy considering the amount of money that Sparda had left him, Naruto just didn't want to use it. It was a simple personal choice and as such Kenji's well-paying jobs were always highly sought after by the blond. Even if they were normally as boring as watching paint dry.

"Well I'm definitely interested," Naruto remarked a sly look coming to his whiskered face. "And as such I'll bite, how much is this gig paying anyway?" the teenager asked as he turned back to the elderly man who was opening the front door of the apartment. Kenji smiled, when Naruto pulled this off it would be a big pay day for both of them.

"The girl's father is offering one million Yen for her return." The older man replied before slipping out of the apartment leaving a starry eyed Naruto at the thought of that much money. One million Yen that was around ten thousand dollars US or about six thousand five hundred British Pounds, damn that was a really steep drop off now that he thought about it. The blond shrugged it off and practically skipped to his bed room and threw open the door grabbing a long sleeved black T-shirt off of the floor and pulling it over his head the dark colour making a sharp contrast to his bright hair. Honestly Naruto hated the colour yellow; he would have dyed his hair to red or white a long time ago if it wasn't for his Kaa-chan telling him that she liked his hair all those years ago.

The half Devil kicked the red coat on the floor into the air and sent it towards the bed. His bedroom was not a large affair, a single chest of draws and a bed that was it. Naruto lent down and grabbed his boots off of the floor before throwing on a pair of socks and quickly pulling them on, the red coat followed soon after. Honestly Naruto blamed Sparda for the coat, his adopted father had always worn one and Naruto thought it looked so cool whipping around him as he fought. Still his coat was not the same as his adopted fathers; as opposed to the purple coat that Sparda favoured his was a blood red close to crimson. In addition to that Naruto's own coat was simply wool where as his fathers was leather. To be honest he wanted a leather coat as well but couldn't justify spending that much money, still after this job was done who know he might even get that leather coat he had been wanting.

The blond's eyes snapped to the corner of the room near his bed. Standing there was a large claymore like blade; the sword was almost as large as he was standing at one hundred and seventy five centimeter's or five point seven feet. The Claymore had a sharp almost arrow head like point, the blade itself was notched slightly on both sides around thirty centimeter's from the tip before returning to its normal thickness for the rest of the sword. The blade ran straight onto what looked like a metal rib cage with a pair of what could only be called human arm bones if they had been encased in metal framing it on either side. The skull of a demon smiled at him, a pair of horns on its head, Naruto knew that if he turned the blade over he would find a human skull on the other side doing the same thing. The hilt of the claymore was made so it could accommodate a one or two handed grip while the pommel was shaped almost like a spike.

Another weapon his father had left for him, Devil Blade Rebellion.

Naruto looked at the blade for a few seconds before deciding against taking it with him. Ebony and Ivory would be enough, the blond stood and calmly walked back to the combined Kitchen, Living and Dining room and grabbed the two guns off of the table and secured in their holsters inside his coat. His father had been good to him, granting him Rebellion and these two beauties a pair of handguns based on Sparda's own Luce and Ombra, it seemed that Sparda had known that he would do mercenary work before Naruto had. Not that he found that particularly surprising, the old man always did seem to know everything before anyone else. The blond grabbed the file off of the table and pulled out the address smiling as he did so. The blond raced out his front door smile only widening as he walked through the warm afternoon sunlight, it was pay day!

It didn't take him long to get there, even if Naruto didn't use a circle for teleportation he was still far stronger and faster than an ordinary human so he made good time. The place that the kid was being held in was a large three story home like Kenji had told him, no surprise there Naruto couldn't remember the last time the old man had gotten a bad piece of info. The house was surrounded by a large fence, metal gate at the front. The blond debated on his course of action, on one hand he could go around and try to find another way on and do things like a ninja, on the other hand he could just go in guns blazing. It took about a second to for Naruto to think about what way he preferred, the hybrids hands whipped back and grabbed the two highly customised M1911 pistols before opening fire at the locked gate.

A single shot from Ebony easily took care of the gate lock and Naruto whistled to himself as he kicked the gate forcing it to swing open before strolling through, the black Ebony clutched in his left hand while the white Ivory was held in his right. His father had done a wonderful job with the guns, they fired by condensing his magic into a bullet like form before shooting it out just like a real bullet, the added bonus was that Naruto could, for lack of a better term, charge a more powerful bullet if he ever needed to. The blond would be sure to thank his father for Ebony, Ivory and Rebellion if they ever saw each other again. He was sure they would, if there was one thing that Naruto knew it was that Sparda was too fucking stubborn to die without fulfilling his promises and Sparda had left him a note when he disappeared, promising Naruto that they would see each other again.

Naruto smirked as he broke out into a run, the blond half Devil crossing the distance between the gates to the front porch in an instant. His legs tensed before sending the blond high into the air, Naruto landed lightly his smirk not once leaving his face as he treated the almost twenty meter vertical leap as if was nothing, Ebony and Ivory coming up as he landed ready to spit out hot lead at anything dumb enough to approach him. Corpses were walking towards him that was the best way he could put it, Skeletons completely devoid of any flesh were walking towards him on the roof. Naruto's smirk didn't change in the slightest, the triggers were pulled and the walking dead head their heads reduced to shards of bone in an instant.

"So whoever is doing this is reanimating skeletons to act like guard dogs." Naruto mused to himself before shrugging; it wasn't like he hadn't seen worse. Meeting Kuroka sure as hell ranked up there as something that had scared the ever living hell out of him. Naruto knew he was strong, strong enough to handle most Stray Devils and Fallen Angels he had come across at any rate. But Kuroka, just being in the same room as her had been enough to make him realise just how far he had to go before Naruto could consider himself anywhere near her level, anywhere near Sparda's level. Actually now that he thought about it had been a long time since he had last seen the whimsical Nekomata, at least two years. That was just too bad, for all of the fear that Naruto had felt upon first meeting the SS class Stray Devil once he had gotten over that Naruto found he had genuinely enjoyed her company, even if it was a pain in his ass to get her to shut up at times.

The hybrid spun pulling the triggers on the two hand cannons with reckless abandon and reducing most of the skeletons to nothing more than piles of dust. Naruto's right arm whipped out, Ivory breaking the teeth of the skeleton that had tried sneaking up behind him, the trigger was pulled and the head of the guard dog skeleton was reduced to nothing more than a few fragments of bone blown away in the wind. Naruto yawned and dropped off the roof and onto the second story balcony smiling to himself as he saw the girl through the window, it was a trap that much was painfully obvious but hey it was as good a place to start as any.

The blond haired half Devil opened the door to the room and let himself inside, the girl didn't say anything she just kept petting the stuffed rabbit in her arms. The rabbits eyes seemed to glow for a split second, that was all Naruto needed, Ebony came up and put a bullet through the side of its head. Naruto had no idea what the hell the stuffed rabbit was but he was also in no mood to find out. The blond walked over to the still seated girl and placed a hand on her shoulder in a friendly gesture.

"All righty then Alice, it's time to go back Through the Looking Glass." Naruto joked, removing his hand from the girl who fell to the floor. So the trap hadn't started yet, okay that was fine with him more time to play around. The girls eyes changed, her sclera turning a pitch black while the iris a metallic gold hmm he gave that bait and switch a four out of ten, one point for the actual planning and execution three points because her eyes actually looked kind of fucking creepy. The fake Hiruka's legs grew getting longer until the previously small girl was towering over the hybrid, her torso however stayed the same size, as the fakes face thinned and her mouth filled with fangs arms elongating to match her legs, fingernails turning to claws. Naruto just whistled in an unconcerned way.

"Damn I've heard of kids having growth spurts before but you." Naruto said a smirk on his face as he waved Ivory at the fake to emphasise his point, the trigger was pulled on both guns. Blood spurted from the new wounds that the guns had created in the fake Hiruka namely taking its previously long legs off at the knees. Ebony whipped forward smashing the fake's teeth in as the barrel was forced to fit through into its mouth. "You give the term knee high a new meaning." The blond stated brightly before looking around for a second as if to confirm no one was there. "Okay that was horribly lame if anyone asks I never said that." Naruto stated to himself, Ivory whipping up over his shoulder to find its barrel pressed firmly against the head of the rabbit doll that had grown fangs and was attempting to make a meal out of his spine.

BANG!

The resounding sound of gunshots could be heard clearly as the two constructs were reduced to bloody smears on the ground. Naruto swung his arm again placing Ivory's barrel against the head of yet another fake. The skull still being visible even as flesh formed around it to make a fairly convincing replica of Hiruka, if it wasn't for the fact it was sticking half way out of a wall. Ivory's trigger was pulled and the head of the fake was reduced to little more than a bloody smear the fake's brain matter decorating the wall behind it.

Naruto sighed as he calmly walked towards the door to the bed room and kicked it open to find himself in a hallway; he took a left and headed towards the ground floor. Either he'd find something and in that case yay or if not then it would be one less place he had to search. Not that he wasn't having fun shooting things but it was starting to get kind of annoying with the amount of fakes he had seen so far, that wasn't even mentioning the fact that so far nothing had even come close to damaging him. Still he supposed he shouldn't complain this was more fun than any of the jobs that Kenji usually gave to him.

"Times like this it's probably best to shoot first and ask questions later." The blond remarked to no one as he kicked the door to the living room open Ebony and Ivory coming up ready to kill whatever happened to be in front of him. Naruto wasn't disappointed either, shambling through the room at him were at least ten, no he had missed two, make that twelve, definitely twelve, skeletons. Not a challenge by any means but at least it would keep him amused for a little while. The blond raced forward and jumped into the air, holstering Ebony and Ivory in mid leap as his feet impacted with the first Skeletons head snapping it off of the bony constructs spine and sending it straight into the rib cage of the one behind it forcing that Skeleton to the floor. Naruto rolled back in mid-air landing in a hand stand that he turned into a kick ripping another Skeleton in half the blond flipped back to his feet and grabbed its arm bones out of the air as the now destroyed construct fell.

Naruto raced forward, ducking under the first blow and swinging one of the arm bones like it was a baton, knocking the Skeleton's head clean off as he leapt into the air before pushing off the ceiling and coming down with a sharp kick off of his right and left legs, which reduced another two Skeletons to little more than glorified piles of dust. Five more closed in around him, they hybrids mouth never lost its smirk his arms whipped out arm bones held within being used as clubs and hitting at a rate that no mere human could ever hope to match. The sound of the arm bones turning the guardian Skeleton's heads into powder could easily be likened to a passable reproduction of the drums used for the song Bad Company by Five Finger Death Punch. Naruto spun once more, Ebony and Ivory coming free of their holsters in a single fluid motion as the hybrid took aim at the last two shambling guardians.

"Bingo!"

The sound of twin gunshots echoed through the air, the hybrid chuckled as he kicked open the door to the next room. It hit him almost immediately, this stench, so this is where that Stray had been hiding.

The room was a large dining room; white cloth with golden scroll like designs across it covered the large dinner table. The walls were cream and sitting at the table looking for all the world like the house was not a death trap was a man wearing a large black top hat and three piece suit while sitting next to him was, as hard as Naruto found this to believe, a human sized stuffed rabbit with pitch black eyes drinking tea and watching him intently. Before the two was an entire medieval tea set complete with a serving platter covered by a silver top.

"And I have just entered wonderland." The blond remarked, slightly off put by the change in decor and the fact neither of the two were trying to kill him yet. One of them was a construct, of that Naruto was sure he couldn't feel two Stray Devils here and the Stray was definitely in the room, the top hat wearer looked at him his eyes blood shot as his mouth curled into a smile yellow teeth on display.

DING, DONG, DING, DONG. The sound of a grandfather clock was heard throughout the house and then the whispers started.

"its teatime," Naruto could hear them, they sounded like children care free and innocent but he could feel it, underneath there words an undercurrent of hatred and joy at the suffering of others. "It's teatime," The voices repeated again, besides the possible constructs sitting in front of him Naruto felt other eyes on him. "It smells of human," The voices stated sounding pleased by that development. "It's teatime. It's teatime. It's teatime." They kept talking Naruto held himself back from doing something impulsive, like shooting the two in front of him before finding out where the girl was. "Tea of Blood, Spoon of Bone, Cake of Meat, Its teatime, Its teatime!" The voices called out eagerly, Naruto grimaced this was becoming annoying.

"Twinkle, Twinkle, little brat how I wonder what you're at, not a Devil and yet not wholly human." The top hat wearing construct said its yellow grin not changing in the slightest. "How disappointing you are, why I can't even make a scone out of you." He stated with a sense of disappointment, Naruto's patience was wearing out fast; shooting these fuckers was starting to seem like a better and better idea. "I'd rather eat Hiruka-chan she's so sweet and we can't have our tea without sweets now can we?" The probably construct asked, by this point Naruto's impatience got the better of him and the hybrid leveled Ebony at the hat wearing thing.

"Okay so if this is Wonderland then I'm guessing you're the Mad Hatter." The blond spoke matter-of-factly as he restrained his urge to simply pull the trigger. "Now I'm sure you're crazy but I'd bet my left nut that you can't out crazy a bullet! Now give me the girl!" Naruto demanded heatedly, the hat wearing construct seemed a little taken back by his outburst.

"Now, now there's more than enough to go around." He assured the hybrid who snorted in derision at his words.

"Sorry not interested, call me when you've got some Ramen and a Pizza in that order." Naruto snapped his aim with the handgun not faltering in the slightest. "Now give me the girl! Last chance screw-ball!" The blond yelled his trigger finger getting itchy at the thought of spreading the Mad Hatters brain matter over the white wall behind him.

"I'm not a screw-ball, not a screw-ball at all!" The Hatter yelled seemingly offended, "My ball is barren of screws." Naruto just sighed at that answer, 'good thing I didn't call him shithead then' the half Devil told himself.

"Look, you're a loon. I get that. Hell, the first time I tried Sake I got so wasted that I proposed to a mop. So I'm not one to judge. That said, nutty or not, I will Feng Shui this room with your fucking brains if you don't give me the girl –ttebayo!" Naruto snarled, the Rabbit sighed.

"It seems there is no talking to this one." The large stuffed animal stated in a deep baritone voice. "Still now that negotiations have broken down..." It let the statement hang as Naruto felt something grab him around the ankle and lift him off of the floor, it was at that point that he noticed something was really wrong with the room. It was getting larger, as in a hell of a lot larger the ceiling was now at least fifteen meters high and as for how long and wide it was, well let's just say the room appeared to be trying to do its best impression of a professional football field. Naruto got a good look at the 'table' the two constructs were seated on; he knew they were constructs now as they were very firmly attached to the top of a gigantic head.

The monster below looked like something out of a bad B rank horror movie, considering the way the Mad Hatter looked Naruto could guess that the bunny was meant to be the March Hare so the cat like thing they were part of was probably based on the Cheshire Cat. The monster was a huge bipedal creature, standing at almost fifteen meters in height with a mouth full of fangs and claws at the end of every digit, pitch black hair covered its body while several sets of eyes and mouths could be seen at seemingly random places. It was at this point that Naruto was beginning to have the sneaking suspicion that this Stray Devil had an unusual obsession with Alice in Wonderland.

'Ah to hell with it, as long as Jabberwocky doesn't turn up I should be fine, if it does turn up I'm kind of fucked I didn't exactly pack a Vorpral Blade when I left home after all.' The blond haired half Devil thought as he casually leveled his guns at the two constructs despite the fact he was both upside down and currently being held at least seventeen meter's in the air by a bad reproduction of the Cheshire Cat. The Rabbit moved, removing the lid from a platter at the center of the table a fanged skull with the same hair as Hiruka another fake, wonderful. Crimson light appeared in the skulls eyes as it started to laugh.

"Alright you know what fuck this." The blond declared before opening fire, reducing the skull to dust before aiming his guns at the Cheshire Cat, Naruto pulled the triggers four times. All eight bullets hit their marks, four of the Cat's eyes closed as it reared back in pain dropping the blond haired hybrid in the process. Naruto smirked as the ground rushed up to meet him flipping forward he landed on his feet before kicking off the ground hard and racing towards his target, Ebony and Ivory constantly spitting out bullets of solidified demon magic. Another two eyes down hell yes! The gigantic Cat reared back and roared shaking the ground, Naruto gulped and he may have just pissed it off.

The Cat like monstrosity swung a clawed hand at the blond haired half Devil, Naruto's face lost its smiling expression as he jumped over the blow and returned it with a shot of Ebony and Ivory to another two eyes, the cat screamed in pain again.

"Why don't you just give up, it would save you a lot of pain." The deep baritone of the March Hare sounded from the top of the Cheshire Cats head, Naruto spun guns coming up as he unloaded a storm of demonic bullets at the Rabbit ripping it into hundreds of pieces.

"Getting lectured by a stuffed animal, that is insulting on so many levels." Naruto growled out angrily as he dodged another attempt on his life by the Cheshire Cat nimbly slipping through its claws to unleash a barrage of gun fire into another pair of eyes, Naruto began to smile again this was it this was what he wanted! The blond had already deliberately handicapped himself by not using Rebellion or any of the spells he knew limiting him to only his own body and the two hand cannons.

Naruto twisted sharply and allowed the gigantic demonic cat to pass him by, time to put an end to this the blond leapt at a nearby wall and bounced off it catapulting him into the air Ebony and Ivory held before him at the Cheshire wanna-be. Demonic power gathered in the guns, a visible aura of red power surrounding them, the triggers were pulled and the super powered Demonic Bullets were launched ripping straight through the large central eye in the middle of the Cheshire demons head and out the back of its skull in a spray of brain matter. Naruto landed lightly, it wasn't over yet he knew that much.

At some point during the fight the Mad Hatter had gone missing, probably heading towards the girl. Naruto's jumped over the corpse of the Cheshire Stray Devil and raced towards the doors at the back of the shrinking room kicking them open without a second thought to find something he had expected, the Hatter was holding an unconscious Hiruka in his arms, Naruto suspected it was the real one this time. The Stray had probably sent its consciousness into the Hatter, this was its last chance to stay alive, not that it would help it any.

"Now stay rig-" He didn't get to say anything further as Naruto's fist met the Hatter's face and sent him flying back, the blonds left arm blurred grabbing Hiruka around the waist and pulling the little girl away from the remnants of the Stay Devil. Ivory was leveled at the Hatter, a single gunshot echoed over the now silent house and the Stray Devil's heart decorated the wall behind him. The girl was still unconscious that was good, Naruto tuned away cradling Hirukasmall form in his left arm. The Mad Hatter's head ripped free of his body, mouth becoming filled with fangs as his eyes turned blood red. A last desperate attack of a dying being. The disembodied head raced forward at the exposed neck of the half Devil, Naruto calmly slung Ivory over his shoulder not even bothering to turn around, lining up the barrel of the hand cannon up perfectly with the Stray Devils head.

"Jackpot."

**XXX**

Naruto yawned as he grabbed things from around his room, getting Hiruka back to her folks hadn't taken too long and the two were very thankful. Kenji would be handling the rest of the contract, the old man had told him about a good idea that he had recently. Why not turn the jobs that he gave Naruto from time to time into a business that way the blond could call a lot of things that he did a tax write off not only that but Naruto wouldn't need to be so dependent on Kenji when it came to getting jobs in the first place. Honestly Naruto felt that the idea definitely had merit, now all he had to do was look into it some more and find out what he needed to do in order to set up a business like that, and if it was even viable to do so. A name would be handy as well but that could always come later.

Rebellion was slipped into the holder he normally placed it inside when going out in public, a guitar case. Because no matter how good he was someone was going to notice the huge demonic Claymore on his back sooner or later. Sometimes Naruto wished he could simply use a circle and teleport to where he wanted to go right then but he wouldn't. If anyone sensed a circle where he wanted to go then they might get suspicious and Naruto wouldn't allow the person he was going to see to be placed in any more risk than she absolutely had to be. The guitar case was slung onto his back while Ebony and Ivory were placed securely in their holsters red coat obscuring them. The blond didn't so much as smile as he left his small apartment, while he was happy to be going it was also quite depressing.

The sun had just set over the horizon and darkness was beginning to fall, the half Devil ambled down the side walk not rushing in the slightest as he turned down into the park and walked forward, the short cut would cut the time on his journey down by five minutes. The twigs snapped under his boot as he walked forward, looking for the entire world like a man lost inside of his thoughts then he felt it. It wasn't a feeling that one could describe but none the less it was there, a Fallen Angel was nearby a grimace came to the blonds face. Under normal circumstances Naruto would have welcomed the Fallen Angel with open arms a smile on his face and Rebellion in his hands. He didn't really have the time to play around with whatever Fallen Angel was around right then.

The blond's steps got a little faster as his intended path brought him closer to the feeling of the Fallen Angel. The path opened up to a small water fountain a brown haired boy was in front of him while across from the boy, who looked vaguely familiar, was a middle aged man in a dark suit.

"Oh what's this? A pair of low class Devils without a master, it must be my lucky day!" The man stated brightly, Naruto's face morphed into an angry snarl.

"Oi, asshole, get the fuck out of my way or I'll kill you!" The blond yelled his left hand twitching as it wished to grab Ebony and open fire. The Fallen Angel laughed as a pair of black wings ripped their way out of the back of his suit causing the brown haired boy to freak out a bit more than he already was, Naruto reigned in his anger the kid had no idea what was going on and from what Naruto could feel he was a Devil considering how scared he was Naruto figured the kid had only just been reincarnated recently.

"Oi kid, get out of here." The blond stated stepping in front of the freaked out brown haired Devil. "He's beyond you right now, go home and your King should tell you more sooner or later." Naruto stated not once taking his eyes off of the Fallen Angel.

"Naruto-senpai?" The confused voice came from behind him, oh that was why the kid had seemed familiar he must go to Kuoh. Now who did he know that was brown haired and called him Senpai at Kuoh, most people just called him Kuoh's biggest delinquent, or 'Hey Yankee!. Not that Naruto ever did anything to dissuade people from that train of thought, turning up only when he had to, having bright blond hair, whisker marks, fighting, yeah not like he ever did much to try and get rid of that label. So very few people would even talk to him, let alone call him Senpai. Then it clicked, brown hair, calling him Senpai only one person could fit that description. Hyoudou Issei. The perverted trio were three of the only people in Kuoh who called him Senpai, mostly because on one of their many debouches outings Naruto had saved the three from a serious beat down. The group of three Super Perverts had been calling him Senpai ever since. Geez Naruto never thought he would ever use the term Super Pervert to describe anyone besides Jiraiya-Jiji but the trio had definitely earned the title.

"Issei get out here," The blond replied his eyes not moving off of his target. "If either Rias Gremory or Shitori Sōna haven't found you by the time you get home then tomorrow at school go and find them and ask them about Evil Pieces they'll know what I mean." Naruto finished as he could almost feel the confusion radiating off of Issei but it seemed that the Fallen Angel wasn't content to wait any longer his arm pulled back a spear of blue light forming in his hands before it was hurled at the blond. Ebony and Ivory found their way to his hands almost instantly their triggers being pulled equally as fast reducing the light spear to nothing before it reached either Devil. Issei's face paled at the spear reappearing in the Fallen Angels hands and the guns in Naruto's own. "Issei run." Naruto stated, the brown haired boy twisted and did exactly as asked, the Fallen let him go.

"Well that was awful nice of yah." The blond stated getting a snort of derision out of the Fallen.

"Hardly, once I'm done with you I'll hunt him down." The man replied, Naruto's grip tightened on his guns. First this asshole makes him late and now he was going to kill a kid who had done nothing wrong, okay so he was an irredeemable pervert Naruto got that but it was not enough justification to kill the kid over. Rage bubbled furiously under Naruto's mostly uncaring façade, the kid didn't deserve this.

"Oh that so, never would have guess those chicken wings of yours would actually let you fly enough to hunt anyone." Naruto snarled back, getting a small, if maniacal, grin from the seemingly middle aged Fallen Angel.

**Play Track Devil May Cry Three- Devils Never Cry**

The half Devil exhaled slowly grip tightening on the two handguns as the Fallen Angel gathered another spear of light in his right hand. The two tensed slightly both waiting for some unspoken signal, the Fallen Angel adjusted his foot and the gravel shifted slightly and as if by some unspoken signal the two attacked. Naruto raced forward, Ebony and Ivory firing indiscriminately at his target. The Fallen didn't seem to care half stepping out of the line of fire as he closed in to his target, the spear of light came forward at the blond's head Ivory entered its path and forced the spear away from its mark. Ebony swinging up and firing at the older man who grunted as one of Naruto's bullets punched a hole through his wings.

The blond was forced to duck as the spear of light swung back in an attempt to take his head off of his shoulders. Ivory coming up as he opened fire on the Fallen Angel, the man smiled widely as he charged in again, spear of light leading. Naruto threw himself back the spear just missing his head as the blond put one hand out and landed in a handstand Ivory still firing at his target. The Fallen took to the air to avoid the bullets grunting again as one caught him in the leg. Naruto flipped back onto his feet and darted into the trees around them the Fallen Angel following him inside and being forced to take to the ground due to the enclosed space. The red coated half Devil pushed off the trunk of one of the trees and sent himself high above the Fallen and opened fire, the man responded by bringing his wings over his head blocking the bullets at the cost of having some holes punched through his appendages.

The Fallen Angel thrust his spear of light up, the guitar case was opened as Ebony and Ivory were holstered and Naruto brought Rebellion to bear against his opponent. The Fallen Angel parried the blow sending it out wide with his spear before stabbing at the blond's chest Rebellion whipped up and smashed the incoming spear off course, the next move was something the Fallen Angel could see coming but do nothing to stop. With the sound of a key entering a lock the Claymore stabbed through the Fallen Angel's body Naruto's left arm came free from the hilt and whipped around his back bringing Ebony back into the fight.

BANG!

The gunshot echoed over the empty park as the bullet tore through the Fallen Angels head and painted his brain over the tree behind him. Naruto withdrew Rebellion and used the clean part of his downed enemy's trench coat to clean off the blade before returning it to the guitar case, the blond gave the cooling corpse one last look before walking away, he was not dealing with this. The Devils that had been watching from around him since the fight started could take care of the clean-up for all he cared, after all he was late as it was.

**XXX**

Beep, beep, beep, beep.

The repetitive sound of the heart monitor was one of few that Naruto didn't find annoying. The sun had long since fully set and the blond knew it had been hours since he had entered the room, though Naruto hadn't really been keeping track of how long. It was a single hospital room that had to be specially paid for most of the time people inside Coma's were all placed into one large room but the blond had paid extra to make sure that she stayed in a single room, it made visiting outside of the assigned hours much easier.

The woman on the bed was older than the blond by a fair amount, fiery red hair that was limp and knotted from lack of attention and a pale rounded face. The blond knew from personal experience that if her eyes were open their colour would be violet. Not that her eyes had opened for over a decade, yes the woman lying on the bed before him was Uzumaki Kushina, his mother.

"Kaa-chan," The blond haired half Devil said lowly his hands moving the red hair slightly as he stroked it. Naruto knew his father, Namikaze Minato, still paid for his mother's treatment even after all this time and getting remarried, though the pair hadn't seen each other for the better part of a decade. It was also why Naruto only visited his mother long after visiting hours had closed and there was no chance his father would ever find out about his presence. It was also why Naruto visited on random days just to make it even harder for his father to pin him down on the off chance that Minato ever did find something out.

The reason for their estrangement wasn't as some people expected because they hated each other, or at least it wasn't any more. When his mother had gone into her Coma, when Naruto was six going on seven, he and his father had actually gotten on well even if due to Minato just starting his own business they didn't get a chance to see each other as much as the young father may have wanted. After his mother had been in that car accident and gone into her Coma though things had gotten worse between the two, Minato spent less time at home and far less around Naruto.

When he was younger the blond thought it was because he had done something wrong and his Tou-san didn't like him any more. When Naruto had turned about ten after a little over a year in Sparda's care the blond had come up with a new theory that maybe Minato blamed him for his mother's Coma. Naruto certainly blamed himself, the only reason that Kushina had gone out and gotten into that car accident was because a fussy young Naruto had wanted Ramen for dinner and they didn't have the ingredients, Kushina had decided to dote on her son and go out and get them.

The Sparda had proposed an alternate theory. The reason that Minato didn't spend too much time with Naruto after the accident was because the blond was too much like his mother, and that hurt the man. Naruto had given the idea some thought and it definitely had some merit.

He was loud and brash much like Kushina, had a rounded face that his Kaa-chan had told him that she had in her youth; even his smile and personality were similar, if not exactly identical, to hers. Naruto had to admit that the theory definitely had merit. The blond had eventually decided that his adopted father was probably right, if Minato blamed him for what had happened the man probably would have lost his temper with the blond far more often. Minato almost never lost his temper with the blond; he just didn't spend much time around him. So, no, Naruto did not hate his birth father or at least he wouldn't until Sparda's theory was disproven.

The reason that Naruto visited his mother so late at night was that if he came during visiting hours his father may one day use that to track him down and bring him home. While Naruto didn't hate his birth father the blond wasn't ready to confront him either. When he finished school or his mother woke up, once one of those had happened then Naruto would speak with Minato not before. Hell even when one of those two things happened Naruto had no idea what he was going to say to his birth father, 'What's up dad? How have you been? Oh by the way I'm a Devil now.' That didn't exactly seem like the best way to start up a conversation especially after almost a decade or more of not seeing or talking to each other. Hell what could you say to a family member you hadn't seen for almost ten years and had barely talked to for almost two years before that? Naruto didn't know but if anyone had any ideas he would love to hear them.

His hand ran through his mother's red locks again. The money that Sparda had left him was funnelled to the hospital to make sure that his Kaa-chan's care was the best it could be. If one was to work it out Minato and he probably split the cost of Kushina's care about fifty, fifty, the only reason that Minato hadn't noticed the change in cost was that he was still being billed the same amount while Naruto handled the cost of the better room and treatments. Though Naruto did suspect that Mito-baa-chan was probably paying some fees that neither Minato nor he knew about.

Once Naruto had asked his adoptive father if there was any kind of magic that could heal his mother. The ancient Devil had told him no though he hadn't completely destroyed the blonds hope, Sparda had theorised that if Naruto could find a Sacred Gear holder who could heal Angels, Devils and Humans then they would have a chance of waking Kushina up. When the blond had asked why Angels, Devils and Humans despite the fact that his Kaa-chan was only Human Sparda had replied that the most powerful types of healing Sacred Gears that he knew of could heal all three kinds of being and Naruto would need a powerful healing Sacred Gear to pull Kushina out of her comatose state.

Sparda had gone on to tell him that they probably wouldn't be able to heal her in one shot either. His adopted father suspected that it would take some time over a period of weeks or even months for even a powerful healing Sacred Gear to wake Kushina up after how long she had been in her Coma. Naruto still hadn't lost hope that he could find such a Sacred Gear user, he would one day that was the promise of a life time.

"Kaa-chan, I guess you've been the same as ever. I've been fine I guess I'm kind of like what you told me you were like as a kid, always getting into fight and finding school boring, when I go. Yeah I know I shouldn't skip sorry for worrying you about that, I still haven't heard from Sparda or talked to Minato I know I should but I….I just can't, at least not until you wake up. I've been eating properly just like you told me to, okay that was a lie I've been having pizza and Ramen too often, sorry about that." Naruto looked over at the clock, one am time to leave. "I gotta go Kaa-chan, I'll come back soon to check on you okay and one day I will find a Sacred Gear that can heal you I promise so please just wait, just a little longer okay?" The blond sighed and opened the window vanishing like a ghost amongst the shadows. If one had have looked at Kushina's lips after he had finished speaking they would have seen the faintest of smiles.

**XXX**

Naruto yawned as he walked down the road, the gates of Kuoh Academy slowly but surely getting closer with each step he took. It was one of his days to go in, a necessary sacrifice that Naruto had to make if he wanted to pass. Still if Issei had questions and Rias Gremory or Shitori Sōna, he always called Rias by the western form it sounded less ridiculous than calling her Gremory Rias, hadn't said anything then Naruto supposed that he wouldn't mind filling the kid in on what he had gotten himself into. Though if Issei's King still hadn't said anything after last night, when Naruto knew for a fact they were watching, then the blond would not have a high opinion of whoever had resurrected the kid. Despite his rampant perverseness there was something that Naruto couldn't help but like about Issei and as such wanted the kid to have a good King who cared about their pieces not someone who thought of them as just a way to advance themselves.

Naruto stepped through the gates to Kuoh accompanied by whispers, something that wasn't exactly unusual for him. This happened every time he turned up, after all he only came once a week, if that, did the bare minimum that his classes required and maybe beat some punk into the ground for starting something. Not that other people ever believed him when Naruto told them that he didn't start those fights. He didn't, most of the time anyway, the only reason that he got the blame for it was that whenever someone did start something the blond would beat them down without getting a scratch in return and as such most people thought that he was someone who started fights all the time.

In their eyes Naruto couldn't be such a good fighter unless he constantly was fighting, and he was just not against humans, most of the time at least, and if he was always fighting then he must start most of them considering how many he seemed to get into. He didn't start most of them, just some of them and only when he knew it was an asshole he would be beating down like high school thugs or something. It wasn't like Naruto didn't understand where people were coming from with their thoughts but that didn't mean he had to like them.

The blond haired half Devil strolled through the hallways of Kuoh Academy in an unconcerned manner, ignoring the whispering that still hadn't stopped. Naruto yawned widely as he slid open the door to class 3-A and walked inside, causally throwing his bag so that it landed on a chair at the back of the room as Naruto ambled towards his new seat a small, if sleepy, smile on his face. The blond slid into his chair and rested his head on his arms, in seconds Naruto had gone back to sleep leaving the people around him to wonder why he had come in when all he was going to do was sleep? Unfortunately for Naruto his waking would not be nearly so comfortable.

CRACK!

"Oww! God Fucking Damn it!"

CRACK!

"JESUS H CHRIST WOMAN STOP HITTING IN THE HEAD!"

CRACK!

"DON'T SLEEP IN MY CLASS THEN BRAT!" The teacher before him roared back, her face twisted in a snarl of anger. This was Naruto's home room teacher and the only teacher that Naruto actually liked, Amakishi Ryuzetsu. She looked to be in her late twenties to her mid-thirties, waist length white hair and pale eyes that bordered on an almost pale violet colour. Her choice of clothing was easy to move in, a pair of somewhat baggy black pants obscured her legs poking out from under them was a pair of grey sneakers while the top half of her body was clad in a long sleeved white T-shirt with a black vest over top. The only thing missing was the green bandanna that was normally around her head after hours. How did Naruto know about her normally wearing a green bandanna well that was simple, they went to the same Gym.

Sparda had taught him all kinds of things when it came to combat, how to fire a gun, Kenjutsu, Tracking and so on, but the biggest influence on Naruto's hand to hand skills had been from his mother. When he was four Kushina had began to teach him some of the basic steps of what basically amounted to the fighting style of the Uzumaki Family. It was kind of like a hybrid fusion of Jui Jitsu and Karate with what Naruto swore was Bajiquan thrown in for good measure.

From what little Naruto could remember from what his mother had told him and what the teen himself had managed to dig up since she had gone into her Coma, information on their style wasn't exactly plentiful. Back during the warring states Era of Japan, back around the middle of the fifteenth century for those whose history is a little rusty, the Uzumaki were a clan of Ninja operating under the Shogun. There fighting style had been derived from the Jui Jitsu of the Samurai with the Karate techniques from Okinawa and the Bajiquan influence coming into it over time as the style developed.

From what Naruto was able to remember the friction between his mother and Mito-baa-chan was caused due to the style and the way it was used. These days most of the Uzumaki family was more or less Aikido practitioners. Using their family style to defeat their opponents while causing them minimal damage, his mother had disagreed with this approach. The Marital Art of the Uzumaki, though lacking a proper name, well at least it did as far as Naruto knew, it wasn't like he could just call Mito-Baa-Chan or Nagato-Oji-san and ask. Actually speaking of Nagato how were Konan and Ayame doing? Never mind, he would see them again when Kaa-chan woke up again. At any rate the fighting style was firmly rooted in the Satsujinken (The Killing Fist) and this became a point of friction between mother and daughter.

Kushina believed that if one was fighting an opponent and their opponent had begun the fight to start with that there was no problem in destroying their body because they were certainly going to try doing it to you. Not killing them unless the situation was unavoidable naturally but breaking bones, dislocating arms or legs, snapping tendons and even rupturing organs if you absolutely had to, Kushina believed that these were perfectly acceptable ways of using their family's style.

Mito had disagreed preferring what was now the more traditional method of the Uzumaki, to defeat there and opponents without overly injuring them and while the tension between the two had mostly vanished by the time he was born Naruto knew some of it still lingered. Personally Naruto felt his mother was right but he did know that he was biased on that note. Also the blond felt that most of the tension between the two came from the fact that his mother not only used those kinds of moves but actively worked to improve them to allow her to break bone, snap tendons and rupture organs with greater ease.

Heh, honestly Naruto suspected that his Baa-chan wouldn't like him very much anymore either. If his Kaa-chan had improved on moves that allowed her to efficiently destroy her opponent's body then Naruto had improved on the moves that allowed him to easily kill his opponents. The half Devil was normally fighting Stray Devils and Fallen Angels most of the time so improving on techniques that he already knew and adding a killing tint to them was simply the next logical step. Hell Naruto had even created some new moves by combining what he already knew with his demoniacally enhanced body allowing him to do attacks at speeds and angles that humans could only dream of. At any rate, the reason Naruto knew about the green bandanna was that Ryuzetsu went to the same Gym as him, a Muay Thai Gym to be exact.

Naruto still fully believed that his mother would wake up one day and teach him the rest of the family style, until then though he needed one of his own that he could integrate with it one day. Sparda had taught him bits and pieces that he knew but Naruto had chosen to go to the Muay Thai Gym after the ancient Devil had disappeared for one reason, the fighting style was frighteningly effective. The blond haired half Devil knew that a few Fallen Angels could, well they could if most of them weren't dead, attest to the fact that an elbow to the face hurt something awful.

Ryuzetsu was his Senpai at the Gym and Naruto knew from personal experience that in terms of skill alone the woman could kick seven different shades of shit out of his sorry ass on a bad day let alone one of her good ones, the blond would be lucky to walk away with only some broken bones if he ever pissed off Ryuzetsu and she was having a good day. That being said during those fights he did limit himself to human capabilities, still the woman was frighteningly competent at what she did. On a completely unrelated side note since Naruto saw the teacher more at the Gym than he did at school it was really hard to call her Ryuzetsu-sensei and not Ryuzetsu-senpai like he was used to.

CRACK!

"OW!"

"Stop drifting off!" The pale eyed woman told him removing her out stretched hand from where it had hit him on the top of his head. "Homework, now!" Ryuzetsu demanded making Naruto nod quickly before virtually diving down into his bag and pulling out a rather thick stack of paper before handing it off to the rather irate woman. "Thank you!" Ryuzetsu told him before walking back to her desk and continuing the lesson. She was also the reason that Naruto was actually passing high school rather than crashing and burning. By the time Ryuzetsu had first become his home room teacher they had already known each other for almost three years due to the Gym and though she had hounded him day in and day out about coming to class Naruto never did unless he absolutely had to and as such the white haired woman eventually arranged a deal.

Ryuzetsu would give him a pile of homework for not only her class but all of the others that he needed to pass, if Naruto handed that homework into her completed every time he actually came into class she would stop nagging him while he was in the Gym. The blond had readily agreed, it was kind of like doing high school by correspondence except he actually visited from time to time. So far the deal had worked out well enough, Naruto would never be a stellar student but at least they got work out of him this way.

The blond fully acknowledged that Ryuzetsu would have been well within her rights, as would the school for that matter, to call the police and have them drag his sorry ass to Kuoh. Not that it would work, Naruto would simply compel them to leave and go back to doing whatever it was he was doing before they arrived, it would make his life annoying though. Besides on the off chance that one of the Police officers actually did make him go to school Naruto wouldn't do anything anyway, just out of pure spite for the person who dragged him there.

Ryuzetsu had worked out a solution that worked for everyone involved. The white haired woman had mentioned something about him being too much like her. As things stood Naruto was passing with a rather average C in most subjects along with an A in history and Biology. The blond liked history, it was basically people kicking the crap out of each other what wasn't to like and as for Biology, well spend enough to time working out how to break a body and you know it inside and out sooner or later.

RIINNNGGGGGG!

The blond haired teen sighed as the bell went and he stood slowly before ambling out of the room, time for the next class.

**XXX**

How he wished he could sleep, Naruto really wished he could sleep. It wasn't like he actually needed to it was more along the lines that the lesson was so damn boring that Naruto simply wanted to. The Math's unit that the blond had picked up was an easy one because Naruto was more or less convinced that his path in life would mostly be him killing Stray Devils for money or some other thing that involved using violence to solve problems, honestly he was considering professional mercenary to be his technical job title.

It was another reason that he thought Kenji's idea had merit, now all he needed was a name and some more information on how to register a business but for the most part it was the name that was causing him problems. The last bell finally rang and Naruto bolted out of the door and rushed to his locker throwing everything inside before stopping, he had nothing to do tonight. Well other than go to the Gym but Naruto did that most nights so that was more like routine, enjoyable routine granted but routine none the less.

What to do? What to do? A smile made its way over the half Devils face as he saw Issei being led off by Kiba Yuuto someone that Naruto knew was a Devil, one of Rias Gremory's unless he remembered incorrectly. So the kid was one of the Crimson Haired Ruin Princesses Peerage huh. Well he could definitely do worse Naruto supposed. Honestly the blond was kind of surprised that whoever Issei's King was, most likely Rias by the look of things, hadn't approached him yet to thank him for saving their pawn or ask why he interfered. Maybe she wanted to talk to Issei and he separately first, that was probably it no King worth their title would let someone help one of their pieces without thanking them after. At any rate that did leave him with nothing to do at the moment, Naruto turned feeling a small tap on his shoulder.

The girl he was facing had long black hair tied up into a ponytail by an orange ribbon, that alone got her points with the blond as orange was the greatest colour to ever grace the face of this planet. Honestly Naruto wished he could wear more of it but all he could ever find was either orange in obnoxious amounts that even he thought was tacky, aka that jumpsuit he had seen a few weeks back, or the clothes that he liked were never in orange, it was maddening! She had a kind face with violet eyes that were a shade or two lighter than he remembered his mother's being. A white long sleeved button down shirt, a black shoulder cape with matching button down corset and finally a small black ribbon holding the cape in place.

Naruto's eyes continued their trek south, noting the large and bountiful bosoms on the beauty before him. She small magenta skirt, one that always left him baffled as to how the administration at Kuoh academy had managed to get such a small skirt past the board of education as a uniform piece. Knee high black socks and a pair of tan dress shoes, Naruto blinked and looked back to the smiling teenagers face, standing in front of him was Himejima Akeno one of the two great ladies of Kuoh academy, and if what he could feel was correct a rather powerful Devil in the service of Rias Gremory. Most likely the rather infamous Priestess of Thunder, which gave Naruto more than a passing idea on what her main form of attack may be.

"May I ask what business you have with me Akeno-chan?" Naruto asked leaning back against the lockers behind him a cocky smirk on his face, completely ignoring the whispering around him as well as the fact he really should be calling her Himejima-san. The seemingly kind girl smiled at him and nodded.

"Buchou would like to thank you for all the work you did last night and meet you in person if you wouldn't mind." Akeno asked politely, Naruto just shrugged hell why not.

"Fine by me, if a beautiful woman is asking to see me and has an equally beautiful woman deliver the message than who am I to refuse?" Naruto inquired rhetorically, Akeno simply kept a small smile on her face.

"Not now of course, we do not wish to startle our newest member with to much information at once." The Priestess of Thunder added taking a step away from the blond haired half Devil.

"Eh that so, all righty then when does she want to see me?" Naruto inquired causing the teen before him to cock her head to the side as if thinking.

"I don't really know Buchou said she would send me a message when she would see you." Akeno replied causing Naruto to grunt uncommittedlly.

"I'm not exactly a fan of having to wait on other people but for this I'll make an exception." The blond replied, it wasn't like he had anything to do until later anyway and this would help to kill some time. Now all he had to do was find something to do until Rias called, well it least it would help fill in his night. "You are going to stay with me until we're called or did you want my cell or something?" Naruto asked.

"I'll stay with you if you don't mind." Akeno replied her smile still in place, great! Now he could be bored with company! Wonderful! Ah well at least it was better than being bored by yourself at least this way he had someone to complain to. Naruto did suppose that he could hit the Gym and do some light training and sparing but that would be boring for the girl, or at least he supposed it would. Sigh, why must life be so damn complicated.

"So anything you want to do?" Naruto inquired as they walked through the halls of Kuoh completely ignoring the whispering coming from around them. Akeno placed a finger to her lips in a thoughtful fashion.

"Ara Ara, asking me what I want to do like we are on a date already are we Uzumaki-kun?" Akeno inquired the blond held in a smirk at the teasing tone the girl had. "Should I be worried about my virtue?" She finished with a laugh, Naruto just shook his head.

"Who knows? Maybe you should be, I definitely wouldn't turn you down and if a beautiful woman wants to treat this like a date then why not, so then Akeno-chan where would you like to go." Naruto fired back, he didn't get a blush like he had been hoping for but the small smile that lifted the corners of Akneo's mouth told him that she had at least enjoyed the slight bit of banter. Not that it was something he was particularly used to, interacting with people his own age had never been Naruto's strong suit. Still as long as he didn't end up tripping over his own tongue he shouldn't make himself look like too much of an idiot. The Devil beside him seemed to take mercy on him as she smiled and walked away Naruto easily keeping pace with her.

"Well how about an early dinner, we should have enough time for that before Buchou calls us." Akeno said confidently, Naruto shrugged before nodding. He may have been broke as all hell the day before but one million Yen made a very big difference.

"Sure I don't see why not." The blond agreed. "Just make sure wherever you pick has Ramen." Naruto added as Akeno's mouth twitched into a small smirk as the two walked off of Kuoh Academy grounds, dutifully ignoring the whispering coming from the humans around them.

**XXX**

As things turned out it didn't actually take that long for Rias to request the twos presence, though it was long enough for them to go get dinner and then kind of lounge around afterward. Akeno had chosen somewhere with Ramen thankfully, after all while he couldn't eat it every day Naruto did love to eat Ramen whenever he could and that led to where they were now. Naruto began looking around the club room of the Occult Research Club with interest apparent in his eyes. The Occult Research Clubs interior was a wood paneled room with Victorian-style coaches and chairs along the walls, 'well it's better than my apartment that's for sure,' the blond thought before turning his attention to the red haired Devil sitting behind a desk.

Rias Gremory, it seemed that she was meeting him alone. Not really all that surprising as the other members of the Occult Research Club were most likely out fulfilling requests. So it was only just Rias, Akeno and him there, damn a lot of bad porno's started this way. Naruto quickly shook his head to get rid of the inappropriate thoughts. They already had one huge pervert in Issei no need to increase that number unnecessarily after all. The red head looked him over for a moment before nodding to herself.

"Thank you for coming Uzumaki-san," Rias stated, her eyes somewhat guarded but he was an unknown that was to be expected. "I hope that Akeno didn't give you too much trouble." She added after a moment getting a small chuckle out Naruto as Akeno herself blushed slightly at the implication.

"No, she was no trouble at all." Naruto stated after a second, "Showed me a nice restaurant I didn't know about either so it was all good." The blond added a smile on his face seemingly relaxing the atmosphere slightly as some of the guardedness in Rias's eyes went away.

"It was a nice time," Akeno agreed though Naruto did note that the infamous Priestess of Thunder shuffled slightly closer to her King. Probably so that she could defend Rias if he turned out to be hostile, not that Naruto wanted to attack and even if he did the blond wasn't dumb enough to do so in the club room of the Occult Research Club. After all who knew what kind of booby traps were set up in here.

"Well that's good I guess," Rias replied though Naruto didn't miss the flash of amusement go through her eyes. The blond could guess with reasonable accuracy that Akeno was going to be teased about that rather mercilessly about that later. He almost felt bad for her, almost. "At any rate I do have to thank you for helping out one of my servants. Though I do have to ask why?" She continued, green eyes hardening once again. "While you've never made it a secret that you are a Devil Uzumaki-san you never approached us or got involved in our problems. The only reason that none of the Devils inside of Kuoh have not approached you is that no Stray Devil bearing any resemblance to you has ever been sighted in the area. Well that and I have heard a few rumors of a Devil that can be contacted for jobs if you talk to a certain man." Rias added before looking straight at the blond haired Uzumaki before her. "Could you please tell me why you helped out Issei-kun, Uzumaki-san?" Rias inquired, well he didn't see why not.

"Honestly it was right time right place as far as the kid is concerned." Naruto admitted getting a surprised look from Akeno and Rias. "That park was a short cut to get to somewhere that I needed to go, I didn't have time to take a detour so even though I felt the presence of a Fallen Angel and a few Devil I didn't try to go around. When I came across the kid and he was getting attack I just decided to help, it was kind of obvious that he had no idea what was going on so I helped him out. I may not be the nicest person in the world but even I'm not heartless enough to just let someone who has no idea what was going on die." The blond finished, the two looked a little stunned.

"Really that was it?" Akeno asked, Naruto shrugged.

"Yep," Naruto replied an easy grin on his face. "I had somewhere to be and I needed to be there fast so Issei got lucky, nothing more nothing less." Rias nodded to herself a fierce smile coming to her face.

"I see," The Crimson Haired Ruin Princess stated her smile not once wavering. "In that case then Uzumaki Naruto join my Peerage!" Rias stated her hand held out towards him finger thrust forward.

"No thanks." Naruto responded instantly getting a small pout and a defeated slump of her shoulders from the red head. "Not that I'm not flattered by the offer, because I am, but I don't want to join right now." Rias shrugged that was a fair enough answer but she felt like she should offer anyway.

"Fair enough, are you already part of a Peerage then? I did some checking into any Devils in the area before I arrived and I couldn't find that many and none at all that match your description." Rias asked, Naruto weighted his options for a second before shrugging why not he could give her a little at least.

"I would be surprised if you had been able to find a Devil of my description." He admitted after a moment. "I'm no pure blood Devil as a matter-of-fact I was reincarnated into a Devil I used to be human. The strange thing is that I was reincarnated in a way that made no use of the Evil Pieces System, from the way the old man explained it to me I'm more of a half Devil than I am a full Devil. Kind of like what the offspring of a Devil and a Human would be like except I'm artificial." Naruto finished as he saw Rias and Akeno's eyes light up in interest.

"Really could you tell me the name of the Devil who did that?" Rias asked this time Naruto shook his head. That was not a secret he wanted getting out, not yet at least. From what Sparda had told him most Devils these days thought he was some kind of Fairy Tale or Legend that he didn't really exist. When it got out that Uzumaki Naruto was the 'heir' of the Legendary Dark Knight old Devils with a grudge against the old man would come after him along with other Devils who just wanted to test their strength. Then there would be the ones that tried to kill him for using the name of a Legend, Naruto was confident in his strength but he was not ready to face that, not yet anyway.

"Sorry but his name seems to elude me right now." Naruto responded causing Rias and Akeno to nod at the obvious deflection. "Still I even though I won't join your Peerage right now how about we call each other allies at least for now. I'll pass on any information that I think could help you as well as help out when you need it and in exchange you do the same for me?" Naruto asked Rias just smiled in response and leant over to shake his hand.

"Deal!" Rias replied her hand grasping Naruto's firmly as they shook to seal the deal. A small smirk curled the lips of the blond haired half Devil.

"Well that's good, somehow I get the feeling that things won't be boring now that you're around." Naruto replied even as the three continued talking the smirk didn't once leave his face.

**XXX**

Naruto gasped for breath, his throat was burning, his arms were like lead weights and to be honest the blond didn't even want to think of how badly his legs were hurting right then. Naruto twisted his hips rolling over as he added more power to his kick, shin slamming into the pair of Thai Pads being held up before him. His foot came straight back down before launching out another hard kick at the pair of black pads in front of him making a solid smack as soft skin hit leather. The blond was dressed in a pair of Thai shorts and a blue singlet, black boxing gloves decorating his hands.

By the time he had left the Occult Research Clubs building Naruto had to sprint in order to get to the Gym on time, he only just made it. He pivoted again right leg lashing out in yet another kick, a Devils body was physically superior to a humans it was as simple as that. At least Naruto had never met a human who's body could keep up with a Devils but he was sure they existed Sparda had told him they did at least and the ancient Devil had surely been around long enough to find out. However with a Devils body being physically superior to a humans it made it difficult for a Devil to train with them without arousing suspicion.

Different Devils dealt with this in different ways, Naruto's own personal way used Fuinjutsu a practice that Sparda had introduced him to. Using the Seals that he created Naruto enhanced the effect of not only gravity on his body to make it harder to use all his strength but also used a seal to increase the resistance of the air around him. These two together at high enough levels allowed ever a rather powerful Devil like himself to fight at a strictly human level, even if he was still far harder to damage. Made for good training too.

Naruto's left leg landed forward and his right elbow came down smashing into the up raised pad with close to bone breaking force. His left elbow rose smashing into another pad and forcing it high as both of his arms snaked around his pad holders neck and pulled them in right knee flying up to meet them before hitting the two pads that had only just been crossed over his holders mid-section. Naruto pushed away right leg scything up and slamming into the wall that had just been made, the blond smirked and that had been a good connection.

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!

He stopped lowing his leg and smiling at the white haired woman who was also drenched in sweat. Ryuzetsu smiled back. That had been their last round and it had been a good one too that was always nice. The white haired woman was dressed similarly to her student except her singlet was blood red as opposed to blue.

"Good work Naruto, I won't see you until training tomorrow night so I guess I'll say it now. I want that homework I gave you back by the end of next week, you got that brat?" Ryuzetsu inquired a playful tone to her voice, Naruto nodded in response.

"Got it Ryuzetsu-senpai, I'll have it on your desk on Wednesday!" Naruto confirmed his voice sounding elated as ones voice normally did after finishing ten three minute pad rounds in a row with no break.

"Good boy!" The white haired woman praised ruffling his hair as she walked away. "Take a shower and go home, I'll see you tomorrow Naruto." Ryuzetsu called over her shoulder, nodding at her back Naruto walked over to the male change room and headed to the shower stalls. It cost a little extra but Naruto thought that going to the Gym with showers was worth the extra cost, nothing was worse than the feeling of dry sweat, well except maybe the smell. Stepping into the hot water felt like heaven, and Naruto chose to enjoy the hot water running over his body for a few minutes. But as all good things must it eventually came to an end as the blond stepped out and pulled on his clothes. A pair of grey sneakers, tan pants and a black hoodie all of his Muay Thai gear was stored in the backpack slung over his shoulder.

The night air was kind of refreshing really, not what one would call overly cold but definitely not warm either. Naruto ambled down the streets, quite deliberately taking his way home not only slowly but through the seedier parts of town. After all with his looks people picked a fight with him quite often, and a little fight every now and then did make life more interesting. The gravity and resistance seals stayed on, if he fought he would fight at a humans level. Still if worst came to worst Naruto knew as fact that he could have the seals off in under a second, because he was just awesome like that.

The buildings around him looked nice enough but the people around were all real assholes. Teenage gangsters, drug runners, ect the kind of people that were on the bottom of society. Mito-baa-chan would have hated this place, from what Naruto remembered Mito was always kind but also very traditional and proper. People who were traditional and proper would avoid this place like the plague. Naruto couldn't help but wonder how his grandmother was going these days, she had lived in a small cottage outside of Konoha the last time he had seen her. Naruto doubted she would have moved or sold the place, Hashirama-Jiji had died a few years before he was born and they had lived in that cottage their entire married lives so Naruto seriously doubted his Baa-chan would have moved.

The blond descended further into the seedy district, he flipped out his phone it was nine pm. If you looked carefully you could see whores offering themselves to people every now and then. Naruto actually had to avoid a few allies because of what he heard going on inside of them, walking in on an man and his hooker was not on the blonds to do list tonight, or ever for that matter.

Naruto turned out of an ally and onto another street, oh now this is what he had been looking for. A group of what looked like high school toughs were arranged under a street lamp at the far end of the street. The only other person was a woman walking down towards them, Naruto couldn't make her out at all but if she was walking around here of all places either she was hopeless new to the area or knew of a way to avoid the boys at the end of the street. Either way she wouldn't interrupt the beat down that was about to happen, huh you know what now that he thought about it a bit more Naruto thought he may have done more than he had originally thought to earn that 'Kuoh's Biggest Delinquent' moniker.

"OI YANKEE!" Came the call of one of the group as he walked near them, Naruto smiled as they came over. That was right come over here you little dumb asses save him the trouble of going to them. One of the five high school thugs stepped forward and put a grin on his face. "Look Yankee this place here is our place and if people like you want to go through here you have to pa-" Honestly Naruto probably should have let the guy get through his B rank threat before laying him out but it was just so boring and as such the bond shut him up in the most effective manner he knew, an elbow to the face.

The sound of breaking cartilage could be heard clearly as the teen stepped back, Naruto flowed forward his right leg snapping out and nailing another on the side of the leg sending him to his knees. His arms shot forward grabbing the downed teen around the head and pulled him in for a knee giving the teens nose a long awaited intimate moment with his cheek as it was splattered over the side of his face. The blond twisted left leg coming high to nail one in the side of the head dropping him like a bad habit before closing with the one he had elbowed before and slipping in close.

"Shoryuken!" Naruto yelled twisting with the force of the uppercut and launching his opponent into the air before spinning to face the last two fists up and a fierce grin on his face. He needn't of bothered they were both already on the ground out cold. But there were no marks on their bodies telling him how they were sent into the realm of dreams. The woman he had seen before had her back to him, it was clear she had been the one to do this. Now that he got a clearer look at her, even from the back, she was definitely an older woman. She was wearing a Kimono and her red grey hair was done up into two buns on the top of her head.

Naruto's face drained of blood.

Oh sweet salty Christ no!

Okay he knew his luck was bad but not this bad!

What the Fuck! No really. What The Actual Fuck?!

This was it, this was undeniable proof that the world ran on irony far more than it did on things like physics and the laws of thermodynamics.

She turned around, her face was a little more creased than it had been the last time he had seen her. The woman's deep violet eyes looked into his a small smile on her face the lines around her eyes crinkling slightly as she did so. Naruto took one shaky step back, then another.

"You know I always wanted you to go down a path closer to Akido than that of Kushi-chan but I suppose it can't be avoided you are your mothers son after all." She stated, her eyes sharpening slightly as the woman saw him take yet another step away. "Now is that any way to treat family?" She asked in a slightly annoyed manner, Naruto licked his now very dry lips.

"Mito-baa-chan."

**Of Devils and Demons Chapter One End**

Okay just a small note at the end, next chapter we'll find out about how Minato and Naruto became estranged though we will only get Naruto's view and it's not as clear cut as it looks. All will say is that while Minato is by no means completely innocent he never stopped loving Naruto. Also while Minato did remarry he did not do so until Kushina had been in her Coma for almost eight years and if you do your research that means she has a 15% chance or less of ever waking up without the assistance of a powerful healing Sacred Gear, see you all next time.


	2. Chapter 2

**Of Demons and Devils**

**Chapter Two: Tenchi Mushin Ryuu**

**Authors Note-**

Okay first and foremost thanks to the positive reviews and thanks for the negative reviews that actually addressed problems that you felt needed work.

Okay now on to the rest of the authors note, hopefully it should be short.

The first thing I need to address is a comment that a few people made, that comment being.

"Isn't your Naruto just an OC with Naruto's name?"

Okay to a degree that is true, that being said I am one chapter in and there is no way for anyone to know where I plan to go with this at only one chapter in.

As for the Naruto story line yes parts of it will be added into this story. Starting with a more modernised version of the anime only arc where they went to Sea country. This arc will also introduce Anko and Orochimaru, though Orochimaru will most probably only be mentioned not actually seen. This arc should either start at some point next chapter or the chapter after that.

Also someone asked if the ninja were still active in this time, the answer to that is yes and they will play a roll in a sub plot which will get going at a later time.

Also Aikido can be spelled either as I already have or as Akido from what I have been able to gather both are correct. Though Aikido seems to be the more prevelent spelling of the word.

As for Akeno's name I don't know who said that it was spelled a different way but that is how it is written on the High School DxD wiki so that is the spelling I'm going to be sticking with.

Also any one who reads History's Strongest Disciple Kenichi will probably recognize a few of the moves and attacks that are used in this chapter. The fighting style of the Uzumaki family is a mix of the Tenchi Mushin Ryuu, Karate and Jui Jitsu as well as some of the Furinji Style from the manga History's Strongest Disciple Kenichi. I'll probably throw some references in at times as a shout out but I doubt anyone from the actual manga will ever appear unless I'm just doing a cameo and they're just passing through and even that is unlikely.

As for adding Devil May Cry to the story I'm just going to play the God Am I card and move on. For anyone who does not know what that means go to TV Tropes and search God Am I, or perhaps slightly more appropriately Word of God. Hell we could even go with Shrug of God. It's all probably relevant in some way or another. Also I can recommend that everyone goes to the page for Shrug of God because the picture on the right hand side is fucking hilarious!

Anyway on with the show!

Thank Zimbolical for the BETA job!

**Story Start-**

Naruto looked down, his hands were shaking. How long had it been since he had felt honest fear, Kuroka was probably the most recent. But right now he was feeling it, his hands were shaking, his mouth was dry, pupils dilated and he wasn't even standing before someone who posed a threat to him. No, the fear that Naruto was experiencing at that second was emotional fear not physical fear and the former was arguably far more debilitating than the latter. Physical fear was something tangible that could be fought against that could be won against but emotional fear was something that no amount of strength of arms could win against.

Fear was something that Naruto was unused to feeling after so many years of not experiencing it. That made it all the more unnerving for the seventeen year old half Devil. Naruto sucked in a deep breath before exhaling slowly. His muscles relaxed slightly and the blond allowed his body to sink into the rather comfortable cushions of his couch. Sitting across from him was the current reason for his borderline freak out, his grandmother Uzumaki Mito.

The red haired woman was sitting directly opposite him, her legs under her, back straight, hands on her knees and head held high. Her purple-violet eyes regarded him with a mixture of fondness and exasperation with a small hint of anger in the mix. Naruto gulped, Mito had never been angry with him before but his Kaa-chan had often told him that she had inherited her infamous temper from her mother.

"Why did you run away Naruto?" Mito asked after a moment, her voice low and controlled. Naruto gulped, that was a question he had been expecting but it didn't make what he would need to relive in order to answer it any easier.

"I wasn't wanted." The blond answered quietly pulling his legs up to his chest and looking slightly vulnerable. "Tou-san didn't want me any more so I left." Naruto added, he wasn't sure if that really was the way that Minato felt but it was the way the man made him feel when he was a child. Sparda's theory made things more bearable but that didn't change the amount of psychological damage that his childhood had inflicted by much, still Naruto liked to think that he had made steps in the right direction over the years to hopefully move past that. Mito flinched at the accusation as if she had been struck.

"Why would you think that Naru-chan?" The old woman asked her voice concerned, Naruto's mind drifted back over the years to the time when he was almost eight years old.

**Flashback**

A small blond child rested in his room, not a single thing inside of it had changed since his Kaa-chan fell into her coma. His bed was still the same, Naruto still kept the family photo next to his bed depicting a happy Minato, Kushina and he. Some toys and books were on the floor but he would clean those up soon, Naruto used to be a lot worse at leaving things lying around but he had gotten better. The house was cold, that was the only way the small blond child could describe his home. It was still beautiful, a large two story home, white walls and a red roof, a home that was just the right size for three people.

The gardens looked well cared for, if a little scruffy, Naruto had been taken care of them for the last two years. His Kaa-chan had told him a long time ago that while his Tou-san liked nature he was absolutely horrible at gardening. So it was up to him to make sure that the garden was still in good shape when she woke back up again just like the Doctor promised that she would. Then his Tou-san could be happy again, it hurt the small child to see his father walking around looking so lost and dejected. What hurt even more was that Minato had stopped spending time with him, only ever staying with him for a small amount of time before leaving again and only every exchanging only a few words.

A noise came from down stairs, the blond haired child heard his father laugh happily and Naruto's demeanor instantly brightened. He hadn't heard his father laugh like that in years. Maybe just maybe, his Kaa-chan had finally woken up! Then they could all be happy again! The blond haired child raced down to the living room his small feet making barely a sound on the hard wood floors. It was something that his Kaa-chan had always praised him for, being able to move so quietly. She had said something about it being useful to him if he ever decided to join the family business, whatever that meant. Years later the blond would note that she had said this with a tinge of bitterness as if remembering something she would rather not have.

Naruto wanted to surprise her! If she was back, maybe Tou-san had only got news over the phone or something. Naruto slowed his body down and approached the living room with silent feet, if his Kaa-chan really was home she would surely praise him for it! A giant smile made its way to his face as Naruto peeked out from around the side of the living room door intent on surprising his Tou-san and, hopefully, his Kaa-chan. As his blue eyes landed on the scene in the living room, Naruto felt his heart break into a thousand pieces.

His Tou-san was there, he looked exactly like he had when he left this morning. Spiky blond hair and a business suit, though Naruto could only see him from the back considering the way he was laughing his eyes were probably alight with joy. Then he saw the woman standing next to him, if slightly off to the side. Long black hair was the first thing he saw it was deep and dark like the night sky when all the street lights were off, she had deep blue eyes that were looking at the last person in the room with affection and love.

A small girl, maybe a year younger than him, if that, was being held aloft by his father who was still laughing happily as he did so. She had red hair that almost covered her bright green eyes and a huge smile on her face.

The pieces of Naruto's heart seemed to stab him as his father turned slightly and allowed the boy to see his face, a huge smile upon it his eyes closed as he laughed. The blond withdrew his head from the living room, tears making their way down his face as his heart hurt again. Who were those people? Who was that woman? Who was that child? His Tou-san had looked so happy holding her. He hadn't looked at him like that since Kaa-chan had gone into her coma. Why didn't his Tou-san look at him like that anymore? Had he done something wrong? Was that it? Why did he look at that girl so happily? Did his Tou-san not want him anymore? The blond haired child stifled his sobs and ran back to his room just as silently as he had approached the living room. They were being replaced, that was the only reason that Naruto's mind could come up with. His Tou-san didn't want him any more so he found a new child to love. Tou-san didn't love his Kaa-chan any more so he replaced her with that woman, what other reason could there be?

The small child grabbed things from around his room, Naruto honestly didn't have a plan but he couldn't stay it just hurt too much. He could always go to Mito-baa-chan's house and spend some time she always made him feel better. The family photo was the first thing to go into the bag but not before Naruto opened it up and ripped his father out of it, if his Tou-san didn't want him any more then he wouldn't want his Tou-san any more either. Doing that was something that Naruto would come to regret years later.

Next a few small story book were added to the small backpack, books that his Kaa-chan had read to him when he was young and finally a few items of clothing, Naruto quickly picked up and pulled on his small white sneakers and silently ran down the stairs and out into the backyard. He couldn't hear his Tou-san laughing any more but he could hear people talking. Naruto quickly found what he was looking for, a small piece of fence that was easily removable even by him and pulled it out of the ground before walking out into the small ally behind his home and walking down it disappearing into the night. His heart still hurting as the lights of the house he had called home for almost eight years disappeared behind him. Not to be seen again for almost a decade by the people inside of the house.

**XXX**

Namikaze Minato chuckled to himself as the elder blond walked down the main hall of his home. He felt good, in fact he felt better than he had since Kushina had gone into her coma. Minato knew he hadn't been a good father to Naruto since his wife's accident it was just that seeing the younger blond was so hard for the now single father. While Naruto might have been a close to carbon copy of him physically his son was almost exactly like his mother in terms of mentality and mannerisms. It made it hard for him to spend any time around his son because of how much Naruto reminded him of Kushina. Minato still tried to spend as much time as possible around his son but it was just so hard, he was busy at work having just started his own business just before Kushina's accident and things were only just now starting to become less hectic.

The blond haired man had started seeing a psychologist to work out his mental issues regarding his wife and child. Minato wanted to be a better father to Naruto but with his issues regarding how much Naruto was like his mother it was hard for him to around the small blond child for extended periods of time. But after all the psychiatric treatment that he had been getting from Seramu Minato liked to think that he was taking steps in the right direction to not only deal with his issues but be a better father to his son. This weekend he was going to take Naruto out, maybe to the park like they used to or who knew maybe he would even take the blond ball of sunshine into the city so he could go to an amusement park. At any rate this weekend would be the first weekend they had spent as father and son for almost two years and that hurt him, especially when Minato knew it was entirely his fault.

One of the exercises he had been given when he was mid-way through his treatment with Seramu was for him to watch Naruto, he didn't have to interact with the younger blond but just watch him. Though later on, some of his exercises had been to spend more time around the seemingly happy child, seemingly being the operative word of that sentence. It was when he did this that Minato discovered something about his son, Naruto was probably just as broken as he was. When Naruto had been younger he had a lot of friends but had pushed all of them away so now he talked to very few people and almost never started talking unless he was asked a question first. The only child that Minato could still call Naruto's friend was Ayame, his cousin. Even then the two didn't see each other very often, Ayame's mother and father, Nagato and Konan, living on the other side of Japan.

The other thing that Minato had noticed was Naruto's close to obsessive behavior when it came to anything connected with Kushina. The garden that his wife loved was now tended by her son, Naruto never went out and played like other children always working on the garden and trying to make it flourish like it had under Kushina's hands. Minato would be the first to admit that no matter how he loved nature he would never be a good gardener, no green thumb. But Naruto was doing a beyond admirable job, even if the garden still looked a bit scruffy it was incredible that a seven year old, granted he was going to be eight in one more month, could do all that work.

Naruto constantly mulched, watered, seeded, pulled up weeds, tilled the solid, you name it Naruto did it to try and keep the garden as close to it was when Kushina was still awake. He worked in the garden rain or shine and one of the very few things that made Naruto angry was being taken away from the garden. He had even snapped verbally at Mito when she attempted to get him to come in and have tea with her when she had been visiting. Naruto never snapped at anyone, much less Mito who he loved only slightly less than his own mother.

When Minato had told his concerns regarding his son to Seramu the psychologist had suggested that the first thing they do was try and involve Naruto with other children again. Minato was forever indebted to the woman for coming over and bringing her daughter Sara with her. Sara looked a lot like Kushina did when she was younger even having a similar personality even if Sara was less of a tomboy than his wife. The idea was that Naruto may get along slightly better with a child that reminded him of his mother more so than one that didn't. Sara was a kind girl as well. When she had first arrived the girl had smiled up at him and told him that she would definitely become Naruto's friend because from what her mother had said about him he was a nice boy. Minato had been so pleased that he actually hugged her while laughing his lungs out joy dancing in his heart, something that hadn't happened since Kushina entered her coma.

The blond haired man stopped on the landing to the second floor and knocked on his child's door. It had been a long time coming but it was finally time for him to be the father that Naruto deserved again and help his son through his own issues. Minato raised his hand a small smile on his face as he knocked on the door lightly once again, there was no answer so he knocked again slightly louder. There was still no answer which was odd, maybe Naruto was asleep.

The elder Namikaze opened the door a crack and looked inside there was no one inside the room, but that wasn't what surprised or worried him. The way Naruto's room was set out had also changed. Another thing that Minato had noticed about his son was that Naruto kept his room as close to the way it was before Kushina entered her coma as possible. He dashed inside and found the small piece of a photo, it was him and his likeness had obviously been ripped out of something. Minato's eyes darted around wildly looking for some indication of where his son was, finding nothing the blond haired man rushed back downstairs making for the phone as tears ran down his cheeks. He may have just lost his only child and Minato knew that he had only himself to blame.

**XXX**

Naruto shivered at the feeling of the cold night wind on his face, he should have put on a jacket before he left. He knew that Mito-baa-chan's house was coming up soon, maybe another fifteen minutes or so if he kept up this pace. The young child's bright blue eyes had long since stopped shedding tears. It wasn't that Naruto was over what had happened. No, the blond child simply had no more tears left to give. Just place one foot in front of the other, one after the other until he reached Mito-baa-chan's. Naruto had no idea what he would do after that, his Tou-san didn't want him anymore did that mean that Mito-baa-chan wouldn't either? No Mito-baa-chan was still so warm to him even once his Kaa-chan had gone into her coma, she would be glad to see him he was sure of it!

Naruto continued walking down the dark lane way and shivered, it was getting colder hopefully he got to Mito-baa-chan's soon her house was normally very warm. Then he felt something, almost like someone was calling him, Naruto's eyes swung to his right and came to rest on an old office building. The blond child took one step forward, then another, his Kaa-chan and Tou-san had told him to stay away from the building because it was to be condemned but something was drawing him closer and closer. A feeling of warmth began to pulse through Naruto's body, a joy akin to coming back home after a long absence. The blond child's legs kicked off of the road with surprising force as he raced towards the building, he didn't know what but something was calling him and it felt nice, he had to go to it.

Small hands came up and pushed on the buildings front doors which swung open easily not making a sound as they did so, something that could be considered surprising for a building that had no one to take care of it. Naruto walked inside, head curiously turning from side to side as he tried to find what had been calling him. He had entered a rather large foyer, a few concrete pillars touching the roof and providing support to the structure. The feeling changed, there was no longer warmth, it was suddenly replaced by bitter cold. Naruto shivered and backed away slightly from the center of the room, he needed to leave. Every sense in his child like body was telling him to run away, his Kaa-chan had always told him to listen to his instincts as he had good ones. Naruto turned getting ready to run, just then came an ice cold voice entering his ears like liquid malice.

"Such a sweet little child, you look so good I could just eat you up. Please, don't leave just yet." The voice told him, Naruto's blue eyes dilated in fear, his feet wouldn't move. His breath came in short gasps, he needed to run but his feet wouldn't move. The blond forced his head to move, eyes looking over his shoulder and onto something that would haunt his nightmares for years to come.

It looked like a woman, or at least it had been made in the form of a woman. But her face was completely wrong, bulbous eyes like one would find on a lizard, completely yellow with a single cat like slit for vision. The thing was tall, standing at almost two and a half meter's or eight feet three inches. Her nose was flat and snake like while her maw was that of an insect and filled with fangs as sharp as daggers. The thing smiled at him as it brought it left hand up to stroke her face, talon like nails caressing her skin with every touch as a bone like appendage stuck out of her wrist forming an almost sword like protrusion. The thing smiled as him her maw leaking saliva that dripped to the floor and burned a neat hole where it fell.

"Yes I could just eat you up," It repeated, "NOW COME ON BECOME MY TASTY TREAT LITTLE BOY!" The Devil yelled racing forward and bringing down it's sword like bone. Naruto's breathing sped up, he was going to die, the weapon came closer, he was going to die, he wouldn't see his mother wake up, he was going to die.

"Kaa-chan!" The small child yelled putting his arms over his head in a vain attempt at warding off the incoming blow as he closed his eyes. The sound of steel on steel rang out before there was the sound of something shattering, Naruto cautiously opened his blue eyes to the sight before him. A tall man, white hair and gloves along with a large purple coat that went down to his ankles stood before him, his right hand clutching huge claymore like sword. He turned slightly, allowing Naruto to see the man's face he looked to be in his mid-thirties with a regal face, high cheek bones and ice blue eyes that were filled with concern for the small child he had just protected.

"Are you okay young one?" The man asked, his voice was deep and powerful. Naruto just nodded in response not knowing what to say, the man simply smiled at his nod before turning back to the center of the room, allowing Naruto to see that he had sent the thing from before through one of the pillars. "Very well this fight is over so you shouldn't need to worry any more." He replied, Naruto just wondered what he meant he seemed to sense this and chose to answer the child's unasked question. "I have slain the Devil that attacked you." the man told him simply, Naruto just looked up at him in awe. The child was moving and before he knew it Naruto had latched his arms around the waist of the man who had saved him and was crying his eyes out. A hand ruffled his hair as the man just let him do as he wished. It took a long time for the blond haired child to calm down.

"Thank you for saving me Mr." The blond said, drying his eyes on his sleeve and looking up at the white haired man who leaned down and ruffled his hair again.

"I have no need for thanks child, helping others is a reward in and of itself especially if you have the power to do so. As for my name, it is Sparda child." He answered before looking down at Naruto with concern visible on his features. "But never mind that right now young one, why are you out so late I'm sure that your parents are worried about you." Sparda asked, causing Naruto flinch remembering the way his father looked as he held the girl.

"No they won't be, my Kaa-chan can't see me and my Tou-san doesn't want me anymore." Naruto answered drawing a shocked look from the Devil before him, what kind of parent didn't want their child? If Vergil and Dante were still alive Sparda would have done everything in his power to love them and care for them, the idea of not caring for your child was repugnant to the ancient being.

"Child may I ask your name?" Sparda inquired, the blond looked up with tear stained eyes.

"Nami-" Naruto stopped himself, no he wasn't a Namikaze his Tou-san didn't want him any more so he wouldn't take his father's name any more either. "Uzumaki Naruto." The blond haired child answered, Sparda just nodded making no mention of what he had almost called himself.

"Naruto," Sparda tested the name on his tongue. "Maelstrom, a strong name for a strong man." He stated after a second and focused his blue eyes on the child before him. "Tell me then Uzumaki Naruto, would you share your story with me?" Sparda inquired, the blond nodded almost immediately the man before him had saved him telling him a few things was the least he could do.

The blond child launching into the tale of how he ended up in the abandoned office block, from how his Kaa-chan ended up in her coma to how his Tou-san had treated him since then and the woman and child he had seen with him. Through it all Sparda listened quietly never speaking only ever nodding to show the child before him that he was still listening. Sparda was quiet for a time after the story had finished, honestly the ancient Devil was simply waiting to die.

His wife and children had both been killed because he had been to over confident in the secrecy of his very existence, most Devils these days considered him to be dead if not merely a Fairy Tale and now here out of nowhere he finds what could only be called a neglected child. Here he faced a choice return the boy to the loving part of his family which seemed to be only his grandmother or take Naruto with him and who knew maybe he would even turn the boy into a half Devil or full Devil eventually. Besides there was something about the boy for some reason he could see some of Dante in him, the very revelation made his heart ache.

"Uzumaki Naruto," Sparda stated as he extended his hand towards the small boy sitting before him. "Others may not believe it but even right now you are strong, so allow me to ask you. If your father truly does no longer want you then do you wish to come with me instead?" The white haired Devil inquired, Naruto looked up at the Devil in slight trepidation.

"You would let me go with you?" Naruto asked his voice was a strange mixture of sadness and hope, sadness at the possibility of having to leave all he knew and hope at maybe finding someone who wanted him. Sparda simply nodded in return and held out a single white gloved hand his claymore secured to his back.

"Indeed I would." The ancient Devil answered before smiling down at the small child before him. "Uzumaki Naruto, become my son!"

In this kind of situation most ordinary children would probably have said no and asked if the nice man would drop them at their parents' house or a relative's house. Let it never be said that Uzumaki Naruto was normal.

Ignoring all common sense the small blond child reached up and grabbed the hand of the Devil before him.

**Flashback End**

Naruto finished his story, naturally parts of it had been changed to accommodate the need to not tell his Baa-chan about Devils but for the most part it was fairly accurate. The beginning was the same as was the way he left the house, the only things that changed were a feeling became someone grabbing him off of the street and the Stray Devil became a group of thugs while Sparda's roll remained relatively unchanged.

A warm feeling came over the young half Devil, the smell of strawberry's the warmth of another person, the love of another person, something that he hadn't felt since Sparda went missing. Mito was holding him in a tight embrace his head resting on her shoulder as the old woman hugged him tightly like she never wanted to let him go. Naruto allowed himself to relax into the hug his own arms coming up to encircle his grandmother's waist.

"I'm so sorry that you felt that way Naru-chan," Mito told him her grip not loosening in the slightest. "I should have spent more time around you. I am so sorry, please forgive me." She asked pulling him even tighter, say what you wanted about the elderly the almost sixty year old Mito was holding him tightly enough that Naruto thought she may have actually cracked one of his ribs.

"It's not your fault Baa-chan, you did what you could and I'm thankful for that so please don't beat yourself up over this." Naruto responded, Mito didn't let him go but her grip didn't increase either. That was probably a good thing since if it did Mito probably would have broken a few of his ribs and considering his regeneration factor that was quite a feat, how much strength did this woman have anyway? The red head allowed her grip to slacken slightly as she let him go and sat next to Naruto.

"Naru-chan all I can say about your father is that Minato-kun never stopped loving you. He was just in a very dark place once Shina-chan had her accident and I'm sure that you know how much like your mother you are. It hurt him to spend too much time around you, that does not excuse his neglect but he does love you Naru-chan. Your father never stopped loving you, the day you disappeared I don't think I've ever seen that man more frantic. He was searching for you high and low for months, neglecting his work and calling the police on an almost hourly basis to see if any progress had been made. Minato only stopped when his body couldn't take it anymore and gave out on him." Naruto simply listened as his grandmother spoke her piece.

"When he woke back up again he went straight back to searching, the only reason he stopped the second time was because I forced him to." Mito admitted getting a raised eyebrow from the blond next to her. "I threw him into the ground hard enough to knock him unconscious. He was in no condition to be going out. Minato needed sleep but refused to get any so I merely helped him along." The red head admitted sheepishly, Naruto chuckled a little at his grandmother's remark.

"I thought you were an Aikido practitioner Baa-chan, whatever happened to defeating your enemy while trying to do the least amount of damage possible to them?" Naruto inquired, Mito snorted slightly as her left hand came up and gripped Naruto's shoulder.

"I only make sure not to hurt fools, they need to be taught better. People who already know better and insist on being fools anyway are fair game to be shown the error of their ways through pain." She stated before looking down. "I hate violence Naru-chan. I hate it with every fiber of my being of that I assure you. I was once far more like Shina-chan than you would believe possible I used the arts of our family to hurt and maim others without thinking twice about it. Completely ignoring what had been tradition for the Uzumaki for almost a hundred years." Mito admitted smiling slightly at the incredulous look on her grandchild's face.

"Is that so hard to believe?" Mito inquired her voice light. "Kushi-chan and Nagato-kun had to get there predisposition towards violence from someone and I assure you it was not Hashirama-koi. Naru-chan I eventually saw so much violence that I became disgusted with it, so much death that the air seemed to be choked by it. I grew to hate it with such intensity that I, who had harmed many people, swore off violence when it was avoidable and would always try to take the path of least bloodshed. I know that you know of the tension between Kushi-chan and I, our rift was not made because of how she used the techniques of our ancestors. No what created the tension between the two of us was that I saw my daughter and my son walking down a path that I myself once walked down and wished to stop them from feeling the pain and heartache that would find them if they continued to walk it. Eventually both stopped walking that path and found people to love, thankfully before they saw as much as I did..." Mito trailed off, Naruto simply sat silently not knowing how to react.

"But we have gotten off topic," Mito said drawing in a deep breath as she did so. "Naru-chan I would like you to meet with your father." The red head stated, Naruto's body shuddered slightly. Sure he had been going to do that eventually but not right now. He wasn't ready, not yet.

"Baa-chan I can-" Mito's hand covered his mouth as the violet eyed woman looked straight at him.

"Naru-chan I know what you told me but please your father is still looking for you. He hasn't given up hope and he does love you so please Naru-chan could you at least consider meeting with him." Mito asked, Naruto's body shuddered again and Mito smiled slightly. "Okay then, how about a bet?" She questioned, Naruto perked up a bit at the question. Tsunade-baa-chan wasn't the only who loved gambling, not by a long shot.

"What kind of bet?" The blond inquired Mito just smiled calmly at him.

"I can see you aren't ready to meet your father just yet so how about a bet on when you meet your father. In one month there is an open weight class competition for a style called Kaburagi-ryu they are a full contact Karate based style that uses no protective gear." Mito stated still speaking calmly as she continued to outline the competition. "In the competition just about everything is allowed except for attacking the opponents groin and deliberately attacking the eyes. Also there are no strikes while on the ground or ground fighting in general." Mito smirked and Naruto shivered slightly he had never seen that look on his grandmothers face before.

"So here's the bet, you enter the tournament and get to the semi-finals and I'll put off calling your father for another two months after the tournament is finished." Mito told him, Naruto quickly weighed his options. On one hand he could simply erase any memory that his Baa-chan had of ever meeting him or this conversation, his family would never know where to find him. That would be the smart move, which would be what an intelligent person would do. But he couldn't do that, Naruto had tried to do that already but every time he started to gather the power to do so something snapped inside of him and he simply couldn't go through with it. Mito-baa-chan was family and family didn't hurt family unless there was no other choice and he had other options in this case, even if he didn't like them.

Option two was take the deal. If nothing else it would buy him a month at the very least and if he got to the semi-finals then Naruto got a whole two months reprieve after the tournament was finished. If he didn't agree to this who knew what Mito would do, it was possible that she wouldn't call his Tou-san however it was equally as possible that she would call him straight away. Naruto was in a catch twenty two, damned if he did and damned if he didn't. It wasn't like he could just disappear again, the only reason that had worked the first time was because of Sparda and Naruto had no idea how the ancient Devil had pulled that off. If Naruto attempted to disappear again there was simply too much that could be used to track him down again, the lease papers for the apartment and enrolment forms for Kuoh Academy coming to mind as the first and foremost. The blond sighed mentally, he knew this would happen one day might as well happen on his terms.

"Okay Baa-chan I'll take that bet of yours, if I manage to get to the semi-finals of the Kaburagi-ryu tournament next month then you put off calling Minato for another two months after. If I lose I'll meet him the week after the tournament is over, is that agreeable?" Naruto inquired only to see his Baa-chan nodding enthusiastically at the news.

"Perfect Naru-chan!" Mito declared in a happy voice as she gripped her right hand tightly, for a second Naruto's gaze wavered and a second image was super imposed over his grandmother. His own mother making exactly the same motion, with the same light of happiness in her eyes. The blond shook it off, the flashback while not unwelcome was unnecessary.

"Also while I think about it, you used to hate tournaments like these. Well at least I seem to remember that you did, why the sudden change?" Naruto inquired, Mito just shrugged lightly with a glint in her eyes that let Naruto know that his grandmother was up to something.

"Oh I just figured that you would be like Kushi-chan and want to simulate battle as close to real life as possible. It also helps that in a fight like this I can gauge where you stand with our families style more easily, not to mention that Thai style that you seemed to be using earlier." The old red head replied a smile on her face, actually now that he thought about it that did raise an interesting question.

"By the way Baa-chan why are you here anyway?" Naruto inquired it was odd to see Mito outside of Konoha and the district that she had found him in wasn't anywhere near the hospital so the chances of her visiting his Kaa-chan were low. Mito just turned towards him with a terrifying smirk on her face, Naruto shivered why did he get the feeling like he should run away and never look back.

"Aya-chan got a scholarship for a school nearby and since Nagato-kun and Konan-chan have started to work overseas they couldn't be here to live with her. They didn't want Aya-chan to live alone so I volunteered to look after her for awhile." Mito finished a smile on her face. A block of pure ice fell into the pit of Naruto's stomach.

Oh he was so fucked it wasn't even funny. Naruto was no fool Aya-chan was Mito's pet name for Ayame his cousin, while the two of them didn't get to see each other to often when they were younger they were still quite close. Naruto imagined that she probably hadn't taken his disappearance well, not at all. The blond licked his now bone dry lips. When Ayame saw him again she was probably going to attempt to rearrange his face with her fist.

"W-Which School did she get a scholarship at?" Naruto asked Mito just shrugged slightly it wasn't like there was any harm in telling him.

"Kuoh Academy." The elderly red head stated.

The sound of Naruto's scream of denial and impending pain, involving a certain four letter word beginning with F that most adults know quite well, could be heard for miles in every direction.

**XXX**

"Huh, so the kid made a friend?" Naruto asked moving his bishop forward towards his enemy's front lines. The crimson haired teen across from him sighed and nodded she moved one of her pawns forward.

"Yes I suppose he did but since his new 'friend' is a member of the Church he can't exactly hang around with her. I told him not to see her any more if he can help it." Rias replied grimacing slightly as Naruto moved one of his knights forward and took one of her rooks. The blond knew he would lose the Chess Game, it was a foregone conclusion. Rias Gremory was simply the better player, that didn't mean that Naruto didn't enjoy playing against the crimson haired beauty despite that.

Sparda had enjoyed the game of chess immensely, honestly Naruto considered it to be the ancient Devils favourite past time. That being said Sparda had made sure to impresses upon his adopted son one thing, being good at chess did not necessarily make you a good strategist, it merely gave you an edge. Because soldiers, be they Angelic, Demonic or Human were not chess pieces, they didn't automatically give up when their king fell. They did not move in straight lines and perhaps most importantly, unlike chess where you had time to plan your moves out the entire course of a battle could be changed in a split second from utter defeat to complete victory by someone doing some balls to the wall crazy shit while having no idea if it would work or not.

"I can see where you're coming from," Naruto replied his left eye twitching slightly as his rook was taken, dammit he had been about to use that as well. "But by the same token I don't really see the problem, if Issei wants to make nice with a nun you should let him. It's not like he's important enough to warrant Angels being sent after him, besides having a helper from the Church could come in handy if hostilities were to arise again and you wanted to help calm them." The blond pointed out, Rias nodded acknowledging Naruto's point as he moved his bishop again and removed one of knights from the game.

"I can see where you're coming from but I still don't want to take any risks with him right now. The Fallen Angels may know that Issei is still alive even after they tried to kill him, no need to give them more reasons for a third attempt." Rias stated her alabaster hand moving a pawn forward and capturing one of Naruto's own. "Besides Issei is a Devil with a Sacred Gear, while the Angels may be willing to let a low level Devil like him being a friend with one of their nuns slide they may rethink that stance when they learn of his potential power and decide to remove him before he becomes a problem. That is a scenario I would like to avoid if possible." Naruto nodded and moved a pawn forward, 'Charge my cannon fodder!' the blond roared inside his head.

Yes at that exact moment Uzumaki Naruto was sitting on the rather comfortable couch of the Occult Research Club and playing Chess against its president Rias Gremory. Why was he doing this? Well the answer was actually quite simple, after explaining to Mito that he was a student at Kuoh Academy the elder Uzumaki assured her grandson that she would make sure that Ayame did not contact his father, or her own for that matter, with his whereabouts. However there was the very real chance that Mito would tell Ayame where his apartment was and then nothing would stop his cousin from turning up and giving him a piece of her mind over his disappearing act.

When Ayame gave someone a piece of her mind she did it with her fists and from what Naruto could remember she had a nasty right cross. He would like to put that off for as long as possible. On a completely unrelated note Naruto had gotten around to asking his Baa-chan if the Uzumaki family style had an actual name, as it turned out yes, yes it did. The fighting style of the Uzumaki was called Tenchi Mushin Ryuu (Earth, Heaven and Nothingness True Form).

So in short the blond haired Devil was hiding in the one place that no one in their right mind would ever look for him in, Kuoh Academy. Even if someone made a mention that an Uzumaki Naruto went to Kuoh to Ayame they would also tell her that he only came to the campus once a week at most so she was sure to head to his apartment first.

The only way Ayame would find him was if she walked through the front door of the Occult Research Club unannounced and Naruto had taken precautions to prevent that, namely an early warning system that would give him ample time to slip out of the window or hide behind something, more likely under something, most likely Rias's desk. Not that the red head would let him live it down should it ever come to that. Rias moved another piece on the chessboard and Naruto grimaced slightly in response, his loss was approaching quickly.

"Anything else interesting happen lately?" The blond asked, Rias placed a single finger to her lips into a thinking pose as she mulled over the question before moving another piece.

"Nothing really, I'm probably going to take Issei out tonight to show him what a Devils battle is really like and get him familiar with the pieces and their rolls." She remarked gaining a nod from the blond haired teen before her.

"That's probably a good plan. The sooner Issei knows what he needs to the better, that way you can start training him up. You'll have to jump into the rating games sooner or later after all, may as well let the kid know what he can do and what he'll be up against." Naruto replied moving his last remaining bishop out, Rias smirked, fuck that must have been a trap. The red head quickly moved her own bishop forward.

"Checkmate." The crimson haired Devil declared, Naruto swore how the fuck had he missed that. Oh well, wasn't like he was going to win that game anyway. The two heard the bell ring from across the school and Rias stood throwing an exasperated look at the blond who simply kicked his feet up and laid back into the couch, fishing a book out of the bag next to him and flicking the pages open. "Do you ever go to class when you come here?" She asked after a moment.

"Sometimes," Naruto admitted eyes not leaving the page before him, "In rare cases I even stay awake during class as well." Rias just shrugged as he made for the doors.

"Just remember that the entirety of the Occult Research Club will be using the room at the end of the day so please be out of here by then." She requested Naruto took his eyes off of the book and nodded to her as Rias disappeared back out into the school. It wasn't an odd request that she asked him to leave before everyone arrived, there was probably going to be a meeting when all of Rias's Peerage turned up and ally or not Rias didn't trust him enough to have Naruto in the room should something sensitive come up. That was fine as Naruto didn't trust her enough to divulge anything that was too sensitive about himself either.

"Tailored suits, chauffeured cars. Fine hotels and big cigars. Up for grabs, up for a price. Where the red hot girls keep on dancing through the night. The claim is on you! The sights are on me! So what do you do. That's guaranteed. Hey little girl, you want it all! The furs, the diamonds, the painting on the wall!" The voice of AC/DC's Brian Johnson sounded throughout the now almost empty club room. "Come on come on, love me for the money! Come on, come on, listen to the money talk! Come on come on, love me for the money! Come on, come on, listen to the money talk!"

Honestly he probably should have answered the phone before the chorus started but Naruto was a fan of this particular song. The blond reached down and pulled the phone out of his bag, it was an older model pre-dating the more current equipment by at least five years. But that was fine, this particular phone served only one purpose, it was a work only phone. It contained the names and numbers of people who Kenji and he had cleared to give him work concerning the supernatural. Naruto flipped the phone open, unsurprisingly it was Kenji's number. Even if the phone contained more than just the old man's number he was still the one who called it the most often.

"Hello," Naruto said placing the device next to his ear. A long suffering sigh could be heard from the other end of the line.

"I should have protested more when you put that song as your ringtone." Kenji groused sighing once more.

"What's up old man, kind of odd you'd have two jobs for me in two days but hey more money who am I to complain. Anyway what kind of job do you have for me this time?" Naruto asked in an honestly curious voice.

"This one's been put as a priority job. It needs to be done as soon as possible." Kenji's voice came through the other end of the line humor absent from his tone and demeanor. "Normally I would call another hunter and give you some time off but this needs to be taken care of tonight. On the outskirts of the city in a condemned mansion a Stray Devil has taken up residence and is actively trapping and eating humans, the owner wants this rabid dog put down tonight, can you handle that Naruto?" Kenji asked, to which the blond just laid back into the couch and let the words wash over him.

"Send me an address and I'll take care of it tonight, provided they're paying well." Naruto answered allowing his body to relax.

"Understood, I'll send the address to your e-mail. As for the payment it's not as much as the last job but Seven hundred thousand Yen is nothing to turn your nose up at." Kenji replied from the other end of the line.

"Got it," The line went dead as soon as Naruto had replied. Well at least he would have something to do tonight.

**XXX**

"So what is a Stray Devil anyway?" Issei asked as the group of five walked towards the abandoned mansion.

"Sometimes Devils betray and kill their masters so they can live as they please. That is what we call a Stray Devil. In that mansion a Stray Devil has taken up residence and has been luring in and killing humans." Rias replied grimly as the group slowly approached the seemingly falling apart building.

"Eats humans!" Issei demanded looking very off put by the notion, the red head simply nodded at his exclamation and opened her mouth to deliver a more in depth answer but never got the chance to.

It happened in an instant as suddenly the wall of the mansion seemed to explode outward showering the Peerage of Rias Gremory in rubble. What had made the wall explode however made Issei go green. It was a severed arm, a giant severed arm to be sure, but a severed arm none the less. It was huge, easily twice his size in length, claws as opposed to nails that were bright pink, pale white skin that was marred by the blood that liberally coated its form. Kiba was gone in an instant, reappearing by the arm in the next second and bending down to examine it with hard eyes that Issei had never seen on the normally laid back Devil.

"Buchou, this arm it wasn't cut off, it was ripped off." The Knight called back to his companions before looking back at the limb again. No that definitely wasn't the work of a blade, the way the bone had shattered and that had to be cause by someone literally ripping the arm off of its host body. The question was who, still that would be answered in a second.

"Yuuto, Akeno, Koneko, hurry I want to know what's going on and I want to know five minutes ago!" Rias ordered her voice grim as the three Peerage members charged into the now easily accessible building through its brand new side entrance, Issei and Rias hot on their heels. What the young reincarnated Devil saw when he entered the building was burned into his mind forever. After all it was his first real look at what life and death combat really was when one person completely outclassed the other.

The Stray Devil was what he saw first, she was huge, that was the first thing he noticed. Standing at least ten meters in height, a centaur like body. Her upper body being that of a very sensuous woman with large breasts that in any other situation would have made the young man salivate at their very sight. Her lower body however was where the nightmare started, it was covered in black fur her fore limbs, the one that was left anyway, was replica of her arms only super-sized a single bleeding stump showed where the arm that had been tossed through a wall came from. A single gigantic mouth was situated on the lower half's abdomen. A tail waved behind her in the air, a snake head hissing and spitting up blood. From what it looked like one of the snakes fangs had been ripped out by something, or rather someone.

Standing before the Stray Devil arms upraised and a bloodthirsty smile on his face was someone that Issei knew quite well. Blood coated his arms, likely from ripping off the Stray Devils giant arm a few seconds ago, crimson coat waving slightly in the night breeze.

"Naruto-senpai," The reincarnated Devil said loudly, if the blond had heard anything then he didn't show it.

Naruto kicked off the ground, hard seemingly vanishing from Issei's sight and landing before the Stray and slamming his arms into either side of the mouth and gripping tightly. The blond twisted and heaved sending the far larger body of his opponent skywards, Naruto pivoted on the balls of his feet breathing even now facing the way his target would come down. The blond's right leg scythed upwards at the same time the falling body was about to hit the floor. Throw your opponent into the air then use the force that was generated when they fell back to earth to enhance the power of the kick that you sent up to meet them. This was the idea behind the Tenchi Mushin Ryuu: Nou Ten Jigoku Keri (Earth, Heaven and Nothingness True Form: Hell's Head Kick). Naruto's leg made contact with the belly of the Stray Devil and blood splattered out coating the nearby walls and ground in crimson ichor.

Issei vomited, the kick ripped open the belly of the Stray Devil and its internal organs fell onto the ground, all Naruto's smile did was get bigger. The blond dodged back, allowing the snake tails bite to go harmlessly above him, his retaliation to that event however was anything but harmless. Naruto's hands flattened out into blades as if he was about to go for a karate chop, the blond struck up striking with the points of his fingers while spinning his hand in an almost drill like motion. Rapidly alternating from left hand to right and drilling through his target, it was an attack that Naruto had bastardised from what his mother had shown him years before but never actually taught him.

Kushina had never taught him her Kazoe Nukite (Counted Overhand Strokes) his mother's personal technique, if what he remembered was correct. But from what he could remember from her explanation, and subsequent demonstration, of the attack, completely demolishing a life sized wooden human dummy, it was a series of spear hand blows that steadily decreased the number of fingers striking with each blow. That wasn't just for ascetic purposes either, each number of fingers had a specific form attached to it that allowed the attack to eventually break through any defence.

Naruto had never been able to figure out how to replicate the defence breaking properties of his mother's attack but that didn't mean he hadn't been able to create his own based on it. His own Jinenken Nejiri Nukite (God Hand Torsion Spear) was a serial strike of six alternating blows, each of which steadily increased in power using body rotation and centrifugal force. The final blow of the six hit combination holding over ten times the power of the first, it may not be able to break any defence but it could sure as hell punch its way straight through most of them!

The first blow came up at the snake head, a left handed strike the severed its spine at the base of its neck. The second blow smashed its way through the snake's mouth severing its last remaining fang. The third strike tore its way through the bottom of the snakes jaw and straight through its eyes, the fourth destroyed the snakes jaw joints and completely separated the monsters upper and lower jaws with no chance of the two ever being reattached, sans healing magic. Fifth a hard left handed thrust that pushed straight through the snake's soft underbelly and into its brain, killing it instantly. While the sixth and final strike completely severed the skin that still attached the snakes head to the body of the Stray Devil. Naruto's bloodthirsty smile never once faded throughout the entire time he had systematically taken the snakes head apart.

Naruto walked calmly towards the Stray Devil, by this point she was a sorry sight. Her tail reduced to little more than strips of flesh barely able to hang off of the bone any more. Her internal organs were in a puddle around her, more blood pouring out of the wound in her stomach every minute someone would probably have to pump the blood out of the room as if it had been flooded by water. If Naruto himself didn't kill her then either the blood loss or shock would, hard to say which would do it first though. The blond strolled forwards, an almost literal skip in his step as he approached the still upright humanoid part of the Stray Devils body.

"Any last words?" He asked a smile on his face, Naruto had no remorse for his actions. Men, Women, Children, it didn't matter to the Stray Devil before him, she had killed and devoured all of the above and if his opponent was like that then why should he hold back his bloodthirstiness either? Blood bubbled up from the Stray Devils throat and poured from her lips covering her exposed breasts in a crimson layer.

"Kill me." The pitiful creature asked, the blond nodded and lightly kicked off of the ground. Brining him to her head height, Naruto's right elbow came down as his right knee came up, sandwiching the Stray Devil head between each of the blows and reducing her skull to nothing but red mush, brain matter and bone shards. The blond landed lightly on the floor and gave his opponent one last look, a simple wave of his hand as a magic circle appeared before his hand fire consumed the corpse, another wave and the fire, and the body, was gone. Naruto stretched to the heavens yawning lightly, that didn't even really count as a warm up but at least it was fun. Besides it was a good chance to practice some techniques for that tournament next month. Not that he could use them at the same level when he restricted his body's power to that of a human but the point remained. Now onto dealing with the audience.

"Fancy seeing you here Rias, nice to see you to Akeno." Naruto said getting a nod from the black and red haired beauties as he walked towards the group, only the Crimson Haired Ruin Princess and Akeno seemed to be completely fine with his presence being so nearby. Naruto doubted that was because of what he had done to the Stray Devil, from what he could feel most of Rias's Peerage with the exception of Issei were likely capable of the same thing. It was simply that he was an unknown to Kiba Yuuto, Tōjō Koneko and Hyoudou Issei. "If I had known that this was the way you were going to introduce Issei to Devil combat like this I wouldn't have taken the job to get rid of this Stray." The blond said with a small laugh, not approaching any further no point in antagonising Rias's other pieces further. The red head just sighed and waved the apology off.

"That's fine I suppose, besides you showed how a Devils battle can go well enough I suppose. Besides money is money right, though I would have appreciated it if you had told me of the Stray Devil earlier if you knew about it, we are allies after all." Rias replied Naruto sighed and rubbed the back of his head in a sheepish manner.

"I only found out about the Stray this afternoon, it was listed as a priority target and I was asked to take care of it." The blond responded as if talking after killing something in a sadistically violent way was normal for him, and to be fair it was.

"No use crying over spilt milk I suppose, what are your plans for the rest of the night? Would you like a lift back to your house?" Rias inquired, Naruto thought about the questions for a second.

"Hmmm, I'll probably go out and eat some good Ramen a reward for a job well done! Then go home and get some sleep." The blond answered, "Don't worry about giving me a lift home. It's a nice night so I think I'll just enjoy the walk." Naruto replied "Good evening to you all, Kiba-san, Tōjō-san, Issei, Akeno, Rias." Naruto gave a nod to each before walking towards the hole in the wall he had made earlier, fuck using the front door when this thing was just sitting there waiting to be used. One of these days he was going to smash open a wall and scream Dynamic Entry! Or Dynamic Exit! Depending on the situation, why? Because it would be awesome that's why!

"H-H-Hold on just a second Naruto-senpai?" Issei yelled causing the blond haired half Devil to turn around a confused look on his face.

"Yes Issei?" Naruto asked quite confused at what the younger Devil wanted with him.

"How, how can you just kill things and then act like nothing happened?" The brown haired Devil asked. Naruto considered the question, Issei wasn't asking him because he thought killing was wrong he was asking because he had just seen something horribly violent for the first time and wanted to know how Naruto was dealing with it. He was the obvious person to ask, after all Issei knew him better, if only slightly, then he knew the members of the Occult Research Club. His answer came to him in the form of something that Sparda had once said to him and that Naruto had adapted to suit himself, that he should enjoy every moment and Naruto just happened to enjoy fighting.

"All you have to do is relax Issei, enjoy every moment of life that you have. I fight, then eat good food. I fight, then drink fine wine. I fight, then sleep with beautiful women!" Naruto added mostly for Issei's benefit, it seemed to work since he had a goofy grin on his face at that statement causing the blond to laugh. "Hell fight beautiful women! That is what it means to live!" Naruto declared before walking out of the hole in the wall and not looking back. It was at that moment that Issei realised something, the blond, at least in some ways, may be even more of a Devil than the others he had met.

**Of Demons and Devils Chapter Two End.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Of Demons and Devils**

**Chapter Three: Show Time!**

**Authors Note-**

Not really much to say here other than there is a joke/piece of dialogue directly out of Hellsing Abriged by Team Four Star somewhere in this chapter, feel free to try and find that.

Other than that I had to delete around a thousand to two thousand words of chapter. Why you ask?

Well I wanted to do something funny so I thought to myself what would be funny? What would be funny? Then came my bright Idea that I began to write without really thinking about it, why not have Serafall turn up at Kuoh and act like a kid then have Naruto scold her. That would be funny! Once I finished writing the scene something felt off, something felt really, really off. It felt a lot like I had copied someone else's work, at least in the idea department and somewhat in the execution so I went back through the stories I had read lately and low and behold End Game Version R by KuroKishi had the exact same idea and a very similar execution of said idea. No way was I copying that so it got ditched, I may throw in a shout out or line I find funny every now and then but that particular scene felt way to close to plagiarism for my tastes.

On a completely unrelated note there was no real reason to put that in the author's note I was just trying to use up some space. Well that and it makes for a mildly, a very mildly, amusing story.

On with the show, the modernised arc for Land of Sea starts next chapter and will happen in Okinawa.

Thank Zimbolical for the BETA.

**Story Start-**

"A Stray Exorcist!?" Naruto almost shouted while sitting across from Rias, the two of them sipping tea in the club room of the Occult Research Club. The blond sighed before placing a hand on his head and sighing. "Still that does coincide with something that I was planning on telling you today. Fallen Angels have taken over the Church on the outskirts I'd stay away from it if I were you." Rias grimaced at the words.

"You're sure?" She asked and received a grim nod in return. "Well at least we know where they're operating out of. Any idea what they want?" Rias asked hopefully Naruto just shook his head.

"No idea, but probably the usual. A way to get back at the dead God and the current 'God', that kicked them out of heaven and probably steal a Sacred Gear or two as well, you know how Grigori works as well as I do. Besides there is always the chance that they don't work for Grigori or at least they're conducting operations without Grigori's knowledge, as doubtful as that is, at any rate it's all speculation for now, just stay away from the Church unless you want a fight Rias." Naruto replied before yawning, the Crimson Haired Ruin Princess merely nodded in return.

"Last night when we encountered that Stray Exorcist that Nun that Issei had made friends with was there. She protected him from being killed even at the risk of her own life, because of that the Exorcist was going to harm her and, if what Issei stated was correct, possibly even rape her. I didn't take her with us because the transportation circles can only take my Peerage or my allies with us and since the Fallen Angels were closing in I wasn't sure I had the time to mark her. Not only that, the Exorcist had stated that the Fallen Angels wanted to make sure she wasn't too badly damaged so she should be fine. But after we got back I denied Issei the chance to go and save her," Rias looked up at the Devil before her, eyes hard and unwavering. "Do you think I made the right choice?" She inquired the blond drew in a deep breath at the question. That was not as easy to answer as he would like.

"On one hand yes, that was the right call to make. You had no idea if saving this Nun would be worth the trouble it would bring when the Fallen Angels would inevitably come to bring her back. Whoever is leading them at the moment told the Exorcist to not harm her to much then you can be sure that sooner or later they would come for her. On the other hand however, she did help one of your Peerage at the risk of her own life, there's a debt that needs to be paid there. Still the fact that the Fallen Angels would tell an unhinged Exorcist like this Freed not to harm her, we know she's valuable, but how valuable?" Naruto asked himself, trailing off to a whisper as he considered his own thoughts. "At any rate, I may not know Issei as well as the other two perverts that he always hangs around with but if you were accurate with how he reacted then I'd say whatever bond you and the others had with him has cracked at the very least." The blond pretended not to notice the girl across from him flinch as he said those words. Pity wouldn't help Rias right now and he doubted the crimson haired girl wanted it in the first place.

"Still the fact is that Issei followed your orders and didn't rush off blindly to save this Nun and the fact that he's still coming to school shows that he's willing to follow you Rias, at least for now. If it comes down to a choice between you and this Nun again though considering the way Issei was acting around her..." Naruto allowed himself to trail off but Rias heard the unspoken message loud and clear, 'Next time he probably won't choose you.' The Gremory Heiress gritted her teeth so hard that it hurt, that was a bitter pill to swallow no matter how true it was. She unclenched her jaw and swallowed her anger at the situation and then she swallowed her pride.

"How would you solve this problem Naruto?" The crimson haired girl asked consulting her fellow Devil on the problem she had yet to answer to which the blond just closed his eyes in thought.

It had been a week since that Stray Devil incident and since then Naruto had been spending a lot of time around the Occult Research Clubs room, hiding from Ayame. From what he had been able to pick up his cousin had been able to find out about him and was now actively looking for him her trusty right cross ready and waiting to be delivered to his face. With all the time he had been spending inside the room the blond haired Devil had plenty of time to speak with his red haired counterpart and they had struck up a rather easy friendship. Not enough to trust each other with their deepest and darkest secrets but enough to be comfortable talking to each other about rather sensitive topics.

His relationship with the Sadist, he meant Akeno, had also made some moves forward, said sadist seemingly getting a gleam in her eyes whenever the two met, Naruto had yet to decide if that was a good or bad thing. As for Kiba and Koneko, Naruto had struck a tentative friendship with the swordsman and Kuroka's little sister. Not that Naruto had ever told the younger Nekotama of his relationship with her elder sister. From what he could remember, Kuroka had told him that the two of them didn't get along at all after she killed her old king. Naruto believed it prudent not to mention the fact that he not only knew Koneko's sister but was on good terms with her as well. As for Issei, well the relationship between the pervert and he was as normal as always. Though, Naruto did note that the younger Devil did seem more at ease about himself recently.

"There's no easy fix that's for sure." The blond stated blue eyes opening up, a grim expression on his face. "In theory you could always kill off the Nun and make Issei believe it was the Fallen Angels that did it. But that plan could always blow up in your face years down the track so its probably the best not to try it, not only that but you owe that Nun for protecting Issei so harming her is a big no-no unless you've got no honour." Naruto stated Rias just nodded at his statement. Something she had noticed was that the blond haired Devil had an odd sense of honour and fair play, at least to a degree. If he owned someone then he would always pay them back and once he made a promise Naruto never broke it, that didn't mean that he was above stabbing people he thought to be his enemies in the back though, it was an odd mix to say the least.

"Best way would probably to take Issei away from the City for a little while, get him away from any chance of seeing that Nun again, for a Peerage bonding exercise or something. The kid needs training anyway and more importantly it would give you a chance to re-forge those cracked bonds. Have him learn about the history behind the three factions more in-depth so that he can see why you didn't save the Nun, play your cards right and even the perv should understand everything. I'm not saying he'll like it but he will understand." Naruto finished leaning back into the couch as the door to the club room opened and the small white haired form of Koneko walked inside, amber eyes relatively uninterested. Though if one looked closely they could see interest sparking slightly in them as the Nekomata caught the tail end of his advice, though Naruto doubted she would voice regarding what they were talking about.

"Good afternoon Koneko"

"Good afternoon Tōjō-san"

Came the voices of the two already seated Devils as the young Nekotama sat down next to the blond causing Naruto to raise an eyebrow but not comment on her action before handing her a plate of cookies next to him.

"Good afternoon Buchou, Uzumaki-san." Koneko stated giving Naruto a nod in thanks for the plate before picking up a cookie and taking a dainty bite a small smile on her face. The blond chuckled slightly drawing an amused look from Rias who just smiled at the two before her.

"Thank you for the advice Naruto," The crimson haired beauty replied, Naruto simply nodded and moved to get up. School had just ended and the Occult Research Club would need the room soon, he should get going. He may have been getting on with Rias better recently but he doubted that she would want him here if something sensitive should come up. A small hand grabbed his sleeve and the blond looked down at the small form of Koneko holding onto his jacket eyes straight ahead still nibbling on her cookie, Rias just smiled.

"No need to leave Naruto," Rias told him and gestured for the blond haired Devil to sit back down. "I don't mind you hanging around for the meeting if you would like to," The Heiress to the Gremory household told him her smile still on her face, Naruto just gave one of his own back before sitting back down next to the small Nekotama who let go of his sleeve when he had done so. This was an impressive show of trust on Rias's part, and by extension on the entirety of the Occult Research Club.

There was no doubt in Naruto's mind that the red haired Devil had talked about this with her Peerage beforehand. By allowing him to stay for one of their meetings it meant that if something sensitive came up he would hear it, allowing someone like him to stay for a meeting of Rias's Peerage was like them all saying that even if he wasn't one of them they trusted him. It was actually quite humbling to know that they liked him, and more importantly trusted him, that much despite their rather short association.

"I think I would like that Rias." Naruto stated a small smile on his face as he reached out and poured a cup of tea for the small white haired girl next to him.

"Thank you," Koneko said with a small nod of her head, Naruto just chuckled and ruffled the small girls hair affectionately getting a small sigh of exasperation from the white haired girl, though Naruto noted that she didn't move away from his hand even as he removed it.

"So what's on the agenda for today?" Naruto inquired sinking back into the couch and sighing at the comfort. Koneko seemed a little interested as well if the way she sat up a little straighter and looked over towards Rias was any indication.

"The usual for now, when the sun goes down I'll send Issei out to run some errands and deliver the flyers. Koneko, Yuuto and Akeno will go to their normal jobs but before all that we'll have a little meeting to see if anything has come up and discuss that piece of information you brought up." The red head replied sipping on her tea.

"And what about the kid?" Naruto asked Rias considered the question for a second before nodding.

"Your suggestion has merit so I'll look into it, hopefully I can arrange something for next week. Maybe we can go away for six nights and seven days or something. It will all depend on how quickly I can get things organised." The crimson haired Devil responded before placing her finger to her lips in a thoughtful gesture. "Would you mind watching over the city if we go, I would appreciate it a lot if you did Naruto." Rias asked the blond haired Devil just shrugged and nodded.

"Sure I don't mind. Just make sure that Issei gets stronger. At the rate he's going at the moment any real Devil is going to chew him up and spit him out." Naruto responded, while the blond did like Issei the fact of the matter was that he needed training and fast. Sacred Gear or not all the power in the world was worth nothing if you didn't know how to effectively use it. Rias nodded grimly as did Koneko, it seemed both could easily see his point. A slight swishing sound came from the door as it opened once again letting inside a smiling Himejima Akeno. Naruto shivered as the sadists eyes landed on him and seemed to glow, that wasn't good Naruto really wasn't into being tied up or tying other people up for that matter. Not that he had ever tried it but...NO! Bad, bad Naruto! Don't go there!

"Good afternoon Buchou, Koneko Ara Ara even Naruto-kun is here what a wonderful day this is turning out to be." The supreme lightning sadist stated sitting down next to the somewhat worried blond who made discreet signals to both Rias and Koneko to save his sorry ass, unfortunately for Naruto said signals were promptly ignored.

"I invited Naruto to stay for the meeting today Akeno." Rias stated, Naruto noticed the small smirk on her lips. She was enjoying this Goddamnit, not that he could blame Rias really. If their positions were reversed and it was Rias who was uncomfortable being so close to the sadism queen then Naruto probably would have taken some enjoyment in it as well.

"Ufufufu," Akeno's strange laugh echoed throughout the room as Naruto edged away from her slightly an action that was mimicked by Koneko. Thank all that was dark and unholy someone with some sanity in this madhouse! Wait was this how Rias felt all the time? Damn that must suck.

"Well then I guess I should take good care of you shouldn't I Na-ru-to-kun." The black haired beauty stated her mouth close to his ear, every breath she took ghosting over his skin and making the blond haired Devil breakout into goose bumps. Naruto didn't allow a single emotion to show on his face, she was teasing him and if there was one thing that Naruto knew for sure it was that if he let it show that she was getting through to him Akeno would never stop. The blond took a gamble by letting his right arm wrap around the waist of the black haired Devil and pulling her in close his own breath tickling her ear lobe.

"So one of the two Great Ladies of Kuoh Academy wants to take care of me?" Naruto asked lowly, a husky tone becoming apparent in his voice. This was his gamble, attempt to turn the teasing back on the teaser. If it worked then maybe, just maybe, Akeno would back off a little, if it didn't work. Well Naruto shuddered to think, chances were that the sadist would chase him aggressively that wouldn't be good. "I'm glad you think so much of me A-ke-no-ch-an, stay nice and close would you?" Naruto asked, teasing the opposite sex wasn't exactly his strong point but hell he would give it a go at least. The black haired Devil shivered lightly at his words before smiling at him, violet eyes crinkling.

"Ufufufu, don't worry Naruto-kun. I'll take good care of you," Akeno assured him, fuck it had backfired. "Hmm you'd look good in leather Na-ru-to-kun." The sadist added, thankfully Naruto was saved from answering by the door opening once more. The blond had never been more relieved to see the handsome face of Kiba Yuuto in his life. He probably would never be more grateful either, unless Kiba happened to help him out when something even worse was happening, like if Akeno was trying to dress him up in some sadomasochistic love gear. In which case he would probably buy Kiba a cake for stopping that from happening, or a line of cakes...and the bakery that produced that line of cakes, look bottom line is he would be thankful.

"Kiba, how have you been?!" Naruto asked getting up from his chair and walking over to his fellow sword user who looked rather amused at the fact that Akeno looked a little disappointed at the fact the blond had vacated his seat. With no intention of returning to it at all in the foreseeable future, which more or less meant as long as Akeno was in the room. A wide smile stretched out over Kiba's face grey eyes crinkling slightly.

"I've been good Naruto-senpai, I see you decided to take up Buchou's offer of sticking around for the meeting." The grey eyed Devil stated good naturedly causing the blond to nod before Naruto took up a position leaning against a wall. No way in hell was he putting himself back into the firing line if he could help it. Life was about living, not about finding creative ways to commit suicide. The blond snuck quick look at Akeno's cleavage, oh but what a way to- NO! BAD! BAD NARUTO! 'Think unsexy thoughts. Think unsexy thoughts. Think unsexy thoughts. Think unsexy thoughts.' Naruto repeated that mantra in his head. It seemed to help a little.

The group of five Devils made some small talk as they waited for Issei to arrive. Nothing to heavy just about classes that day and what they planned to do in their time off. Rias cast an odd look at the clock after a while before sighing and rapping her knuckles on the coffee table to get everyone's attention, the talking died almost instantly.

"Alright since Issei is late we'll start the meeting now and I will just fill him in on the important points. First and foremost does anyone have anything that needs to be address urgently or some information to share?" Rias inquired, Akeno nodded looking grim.

"I know that we don't want to get overly involved but we should probably find out where the Fallen Angels are basing themselves, its most likely the Church but double checking couldn't hurt. At least then we would know places that we need to keep Issei away from at all costs." The black haired beauty stated getting a nod from both Kiba and Koneko.

"That's been solved already," Rias replied before pointing at Naruto. "Naruto was kind enough to bring me some information about the Fallen Angels. Just as you thought Akeno they are based out of the Church. Unfortunately we don't know what they want but it's probably the usual, expanding their territory and influence slightly as well as taking any interesting or powerful Sacred Gears holders they can find or failing that killing off the Sacred Gear holders like they attempted to do to Issei." The crimson haired Devil finished, Kiba nodded before sighing.

"We should probably have him avoid everything in the Church's general direction and have someone with him when we can. At this point if a Fallen Angel sees a chance to kill him they'll probably take it and with how powerful Issei is at the moment chances are they'll succeed." Kiba finished Rias sighed before nodding.

"Alright then we are agreed, Issei won't be given jobs anywhere near the Church and where possible one of us will accompany him. That said the rest of you can handle yourselves so if you wish to take a job nearer to the Church that is your business but please take extra precautions if you do so and don't be afraid to call for help if you need it." The Crimson Haired Ruin Princess ordered her Peerage, there were no words of dissent from the other Devils so Naruto assumed they all agreed with her.

"Any other business before we move on?" No one else had anything to say and so Rias simply moved to the next order of business. "Alrighty that's it for today then, business as normal once the sun goes down but you're all free to do whatever until then." She stated brightly getting a nod from the three Devils of her Peerage.

The door flew open and crashed against the wall of the room leaving cracks in the wood. Issei stood there looking like death itself, eyes wide and skin pale. Dried blood was on his shirt around the brown haired Devils abdomen but Naruto couldn't see a wound of any kind. What the hell? Did the kid know healing spells already? The young Devils eyes found Rias and he raced over to the crimson haired beauty panting hard.

"Buchou, please, please help me save Asia!" He yelled out, Naruto simply leaned against the wall, his eyes narrowing. Issei knowing healing spells was unlikely at best and the kind of wound that had apparently been inflicted on him was probably a stab wound based on the amount of blood and the location. That meant someone had probably healed him, this Asia perhaps? But how? that was the real question. Rias just sighed and looked at the young Devil sternly.

"I told you no once Issei, my answer has not changed." The red head stated, Naruto pretended not to notice her flinch when Issei looked at her with betrayal in his eyes. "How many times do I have to tell you, you are now a Devil of the Gremory household and she is the slave of a Fallen Angel, nothing good can come of that!" Rias stated firmly, shit if Asia was the one that had healed Issei then either she had quite powerful healing magic, because that wound was most likely made by a Spear of Light, or she had a Sacred Gear that could heal Devils. Naruto's spine went ramrod straight as he listened more closely, could this really be it? Had he finally found what he was looking for?

"Then please release me!" Issei begged desperation making its way into his eyes as he spoke. "I can make it on my own!"

"You know that you can't don't you?" Rias asked in return, she wasn't doing it to be cruel rather she was stating pure and simple fact. "Besides you know I can't do that."

"But I'm just a pawn right? What's the problem with just one little pawn missing from your set!?" Issei demanded, oh that had been a bad move. Naruto shuddered slightly in sympathy as he saw Rias's eyes harden at the brown haired Devil's statement.

"Be silent!" Rias hissed out causing Issei to flinch away from her, this was probably the first time that he had actually angered the red head. "Issei do you think the pawn is the weakest piece?" Rias questioned her voice tightly controlled. Naruto had to snort at that notion, a pawn the weakest piece more like the most broken piece, well if you knew how to abuse it that was. "Amongst the Evil Pieces Pawns has the ability that the rest don't have, this ability is called promotion. If a pawn can make it all the way into enemy territory then that pawn can be promoted to any piece other than a King. If used correctly this ability can be devastating in battle as the pawn in enemy territory can choose the best piece to promote itself based on the situation and thus improve their chances for not only survival but victory."

"Are you saying that I have the chance to gain the same powers that everyone else has?" Issei asked sounding slightly breathless at the thought, Rias nodded in return.

"Yes, if you manage to make it into enemy territory. Like a Church for example." Rias stated, Naruto sighed internally why couldn't she just tell him to go and save the damn Nun it would have been so much faster than dragging this out. Still maybe Rias was testing Issei after a fashion trying to see just how far the pawn would go for the Nun, this Asia, who he wanted to save. "Also Issei the Sacred Gear responds to your will, the more you want it the more it will react to you." Rias stated before walking over to Akeno. "Now we have business elsewhere so please take care of yourselves while we are gone." She stated as the two were engulfed in red light before disappearing.

Naruto kicked off of his wall and walked over to the brown haired Devil whose eyes were narrowed and placed his hand on Issei's shoulder.

"Issei I want you to listen very carefully to what I am about to ask you. Does this Asia have a Sacred Gear and if so can it heal Devils, Humans and Angels?" The blond inquired causing the brown haired Devil to look at him strangely.

"Ah yes Asia does have a Sacred Gear Naruto-senpai but I don't know if it can heal Angels. But it heals Devils and Humans just fine." Blue eyes closed at the answer, he was unsure if it could heal Angels. Still it was a hell of a lot closer than he had ever been before and the Fallen Angels would likely only want it if it could heal them. At that moment Uzumaki Naruto made his choice. Issei walked away from him towards the door Naruto's arms extended out away from his body and in a short burst of red his coat was in place Ebony and Ivory in their holsters and Rebellion in a guitar case on his back. A mild form of summoning magic, it was a very nice way to keep all of his weapons on him at any given time. But it was still faster to actually pull the weapon out physically than summon it, hence why Naruto actually carried his weapons on him when he had the chance rather than just summoning them at his convenience before dismissing them again. The blond haired Devil walked over to his brown haired counterpart and placed his hand on Issei's shoulder, eyes hard.

"Well shall we get going then, after all Asia isn't going to rescue herself." Naruto stated Issei's head snapped around to look at the blond.

"You're coming too Naruto-senpai!?" The brown haired Devil asked incredulously, the Uzumaki just chuckled in response.

"I'm not the only one." Naruto stated pointing over his shoulder as he moved slightly allowing Issei to see Kiba strapping on a sword as Koneko pulled on a pair of very thin MMA gloves, it was quite obvious that the gloves were meant to protect the small girls hands and not her opponents face.

"Naruto-senpai is right you know." Kiba stated a smile on his face, "We're coming to, besides I'm sure you two aren't stupid enough to walk into an enemy stronghold without backup right." The blond finished sarcasm liberally coating his last words. Koneko simply settled for a quick nod before she made a fist and punched her right fist into her left hand, Naruto just took it as the white haired girls version of 'Ready to fight'.

"Of course not." Naruto assured his fellow blond completely ignoring the fact that he had been about to do just that if Kiba and Koneko had decided not to come along, Naruto turned to face Issei again a smile on his face."Now then, lead the way to the Church kid, your damsel in distress is waiting for her knight right?" The elder Devil stated, Issei simply smiled back a huge grin on his face.

**XXX**

Naruto whistled as the group of four Devils observed the Church from a distance, that was some serious Killing Intent coming from inside the building. He couldn't feel anything to dangerous inside, then again maybe that was the barrier around the place interfering with his senses, but they definitely had cannon fodder in abundance, hopefully that wouldn't prove to be too much of a problem.

"There's definitely a lot of priests inside." Kiba stated lowly, Naruto grunted in affirmation as Koneko and Issei nodded.

"Still it's odd to see so many priests and Fallen Angels in the same place, after all those black winged bastards tend to hate men of the cloth, former or not." Naruto replied, Koneko and Issei kept quiet as the two blond haired swordsmen spoke in hushed tones. The elder blonds arms came up above his head and Naruto stretched towards the heavens. Before shouldering Rebellion, now out of the guitar case, and walking towards the front doors of the Church Koneko easily keeping pace next to him. "They probably already know we're here," Naruto called back to the two Devils. "We weren't exactly subtle in our approach after all, let's just get this over and done with." The blond turned his attention to the white haired girl next to him. "You ready for this kitty-cat-chan?" Naruto inquired receiving an ice cold glare in return.

"More than you are Baka-Kitsune." Koneko shot back and Naruto held a hand to his heart in mock hurt. Koneko had conned the Kitsune phrase due to his whisker marks and large smile, the small girl saying that he looked like a fox about to make trouble, personally Naruto took that as a complement. "I'm sure I'll be of more use than you will be." The white haired girl added after a moment, Naruto hid his grin and pretended to yawn. Banter like this was always good before a fight, kept you nice and loose, ready to go but not stressed out. Besides Koneko's little statement about her being of more use showed that the white haired girl had something of a competitive side, that was something that Koneko and Kuroka definitely had in common.

The blond haired Devil pushed the Church doors open and walked forward into the gloom, Kiba and Issei coming in right behind him. The place was deserted, not that he found that to be particularly surprising. Pews were arranged in wall defined rows leading to an altar, a single unlit candle upon it. Wow, who knew that Fallen Angels liked scenery out of a B list horror movie. Various objects of faith like crosses and pictures of the mother Mary laid in ruins around the room, again not exactly surprising.

Clap, Clap, Clap. The sound echoed throughout the, seemingly, abandoned Church as a strangely dressed white haired man walked out into the open. Every step accented with another sarcastic clap of his hands. A demented sneer was on his face as the Stray Exorcist stopped in the center of the room and turned to face the four Devils, Naruto breathed in deeply through his nose.

"Suddenly it smells like hypocrisy in here. Oh look it's the Catholic Church." The blond stated in a flat voice. "And what's this? No little Timmy glued to your crotch, progress!" Naruto finished sounding surprised not really expecting the obviously unhinged priest to answer his provocation. Most of these nut jobs tended to have rather selective hearing, hell the only reason Naruto was indulging in banter in the first place rather than running the fuck wit priest through and moving on was that the psycho might tell them something they didn't already know. The priest's eyes lit up upon sighting him his smile growing even wider.

"OHHHH! Another shitty Devil! This must be fate, these chills up my spine is it love or is it killing inten-" Freed's tirade was cut off prematurely, the Stray Exorcist quickly pulling out a Sword of Light to block the incoming overhead chop from Rebellion. Okay that was it screw being calm, this fucker was crazier than a necrophiliac on a Red Bull rush, no useful information to be found here. The two blades connected with an ear shattering crash, Freed was strong. Naruto would give the crazy bastard that, but he was not strong enough to hold a weapon lock against an opponent that out classed him as much as Naruto did in the pure physical strength department. The result was obvious, Naruto pivoted and sent Freed flying back through a row of pews, splinters of wood cascading into the air to mark the priests path.

"GO, I'LL HANDLE THE CRAZY MORON!" Naruto called out, the other Devils seemed to hesitate. Naruto twisted swinging his upper body close to the ground as a slew of bullets impacted the stone that his head had been in front of a second before. The blond haired Devil planted Rebellion into the floor and used the claymore to right himself hands whipping behind his back and bringing his black and white hand cannons into the fray. The sound of gunfire roared through the room as Naruto returned fire on the white haired Exorcist who dodged with the ease of a practised fighter.

"WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU WAITING FOR!" The blond haired Devil demanded, it seemed his voice was what the other three needed to hear.

"DON'T YOU DARE DIE ON ME, ALRIGHT NARUTO-SENPAI!?" Issei yelled out rushing deeper into the cathedral, Kiba and Koneko settled for just a quick nod of their heads but the gesture meant just as much to the blond. Still that didn't stop him from commenting sarcastically on what Issei had said.

"WHY DON'T YOU WRITE THAT DOWN AS A MEMO AND ENTITAL IT, SHIT I ALREADY KNOW!" Naruto yelled at the retreating backs of the three Devils before smirking at the priest before him, the blond haired Devil jumped high kicking off a wall to fire on Freed from yet another angle smiling viciously as one of the demonic bullets tore through the priests left shoulder causing him to drop his gun, blood spraying onto the wall behind him.

Naruto fell back to earth, snatching Rebellion out of the floor as he rushed forward at his opponent. The claymore cut out, left, right, up, down in short order each cut adding another gash to the Stray Exorcists body. Freed's Blade of Light rushed at Naruto's head, the blond haired Devil twisted under the blow bringing him to inside Freed's guard. His right leg shot up with all of Naruto's formidable strength and speed behind it. Under normal circumstances at a time like this the blond would probably say something like 'FLY' or some such before his leg connected. Considering that his only chance of ever reviving his mother may very well be almost dead at that very moment Naruto chose to forgo the macho posturing and just kick the fucking nut bag.

The roundhouse kick slammed into Freed's gut with beyond bone shattering force. The priest folded at the waist blood fountaining out of his mouth as he did so, Naruto didn't bother to hide the bloodthirsty grin that formed on his face as he felt bone break under the impact. No wait, this hard feeling, that wasn't bone! Something shattered under the priests coat before Naruto heard a wet snapping sound that signified his leg had actually made contact with the priest's body this time, breaking most of Freed's ribs.

The white haired crazy shot away from the point of impact like a rocket shattering the large stain glass window above the main podium on his way out of the building. Shit, hopefully he was dead. If that kick had of connected properly then his organs should have been turned into a fine paste by the impact. But the kick didn't land properly, whatever had been under the priests coat had stopped his kick short, if only just. Still with the amount of force that had hit Freed, even if his organs weren't turned into paste by the blow he was looking at heavy internal bleeding at the very least. Hopefully that would be enough. Oh who was he kidding, knowing the kind of bad luck that he had Naruto would be willing to bet his entire life savings that the moron would come back and cause him some trouble one of these days.

Rebellion whipped through the air with an audible whooshing sound as Naruto returned it to his back before running further into the Church. Fortunately finding the three others wouldn't be that hard. Whoever had been maintaining the barrier around the Church was either dead or otherwise indisposed because now Naruto could feel where all the Stray Exorcists and Devils were inside the building. The blond ripped the door to the courtyard off its hinges before racing into the well maintained Church gardens. In fact they were right below him, Rebellion was removed from his back and held high, ready to stab into the earth. Crimson demonic power surged around the claymore shaped Devil arm, Naruto's right arm came back as the blond haired half Devil braced himself for the coming explosion. The blade came down and the world exploded into red, his power ripped through the stone floor of the courtyard like a hot knife through butter and Naruto almost instantly found himself in free fall.

Dust obscured his vision but that wasn't really a huge problem for the half Devil. While sensing energy wasn't his specialty Naruto was quite gifted in that area, the blond decided he would need to improve on that when he had the time. Naruto could feel where Koneko and Kiba were, currently engaged in battle with quite a few human signatures, the feeling of a Fallen Angel was close by Issei who seemed to be protecting someone, another human, from it. Rebellion was returned to his back Ebony and Ivory flying into his hands Naruto landed lightly bending his knees before pushing off from the ground hard and almost instantly appearing behind Koneko both guns coming up. Ebony flew out to his left and the barrel lined up perfectly with an Exorcists skull, his brain was decorating the wall behind him a split second later. Ivory was targeting anything that felt even remotely human near Kiba. In this dust you could say that the Devils had the advantage, the Exorcists had to worry about hitting their own and the Fallen Angel in the room, all the Devils had to do was not hit each other.

The trigger of the white gun was pulled and gun fire roared in the dust once more, two more Exorcists had their heads turned into what looked like a grim parody of a kids pinata. The dust was starting to clear, Naruto moved faster the blond fell to one knee allowing a sword strike to go harmlessly above his head. Koneko twisted using his back as a springboard and nailed the Exorcist in the face with her knee crushing the man's skull like so much cheep plastic. Ebony whipped up muzzle flaring as the weapon spat hot death at anyone foolish enough to enter Naruto's line of fire. The dust was almost completely cleared up, Naruto could make out what was going on now instead of just sensing it.

The room was in ruins, though that was to be expected given his method of entrance. FUCK! That would have been the perfect time to scream Dynamic Entry! Why hadn't he thought of that! Oh well no use whining about it now. Kiba didn't seem to have any injuries, Koneko looked about the same, that was good. The same, unfortunately, could not be said for Issei, the Fallen Angel seemed to enjoy playing with her food. The brown haired Devil was littered with small cuts but other than that he seemed to be fine. As for the Nun she looked fine and from what Naruto could feel she would live, that was good if that Fallen had ruined his chance at getting his mother cured then she would die slowly and Naruto would do his best to make it painful.

Said Fallen Angel was looking at him in fury as her black wings spread, it seemed that she had decided that the odds were too much against her and was planning to cut and run.

Not fucking likely if Naruto had anything to say about it.

Ebony and Ivory were taken away from their original targets the twin hand cannons snapping up to the flying form of the Fallen Angel, the triggers were pulled. Naruto watched with more than a little satisfaction as the slides pulled back, the hammers fell and the concentrated bullet of demonic energy raced out of the end of the two guns. Honestly it was going to be easier to hit the flying Fallen Angel with Ebony rather than Ivory. The two guns were designed differently after all, Ivory was made for more close quarters, quick draw times and rapid firing while Ebony was more for long range and comfort. This was easily seen when one looked at the sights on each gun, the target sights for Ebony and the combat sights for Ivory.

The shower of demonic bullets flew true, each shot punching another hole in the Fallen Angels wings. Blood rained from the sky as the Angel fell to earth, granted she didn't fall back into the now open air basement but she did still fall back to earth, even if it was in the now rather thoroughly demolished courtyard. Naruto's eyes came back down onto the group of Stray Exorcists and the blond haired Devil charged forward ducking under the swing of the first man and bringing Ebony up to divert the next strike.

The blonds left leg flashed out in a push kick, the flat of Naruto's foot connecting firmly with an Exorcists chest and sending the man flying into his compatriots. As the blonds foot came back down to earth Ebony and Ivory went to work once more as the half Devil dashed forward towards Issei ducking and diving strikes like they were moving in slow motion. A Sword of Light raced at Naruto's head and met a spinning Ivory, forcing the blow off target as the blond spun three hundred and sixty degrees returning the two guns to their holsters as he did so. Naruto's left leg flashed out the heel of his foot connecting cleanly with the side of an Exorcists neck, snapping the man's spine like a twig. Naruto didn't waste a second, once more charging towards his target, Issei and that Nun named Asia.

Another blow came from his right, Naruto stepped towards it. Hands coming up and grabbing his opponents arm in a grip of iron. The blond yanked his target forward, right palm lashing out and finding a home in the man's chest. Shattering his ribs and rupturing both the Exorcists lungs and heart. Naruto's right arm moved up gabbing the man's collar as he twisted and threw the dying Exorcist into the morons trying to creep up behind him. Naruto's right leg snapped out meeting an Exorcists arm at the wrist, a sickening snapping sound could be heard as the appendage was broken. A Sword of Light falling from the now useless hand, Naruto's right leg came down hard inside of the man's guard. The blonds left arm pulled back fast giving him the feeling of his shoulder blades grinding together before his right fist shot towards its target. The fist went forward unimpeded smashing into the man's chest blood fountained out of his mouth as the Exorcist flew backwards his dead body making a sizable crater in a nearby wall.

Naruto pivoted, his weight seeming like nothing as the blond flowed around the incoming attack as if it was barely worth noticing. He jumped, landing lightly on the attacking Exorcists head before pushing off hard, the force of his second jump reducing his enemy's head to naught but red mush and grey brain matter. The blond haired half Devil sailed through the air as if belonged their before landing lightly right next to his target, Issei. Naruto smiled down at his pale looking brown haired counterpart.

"Good to see you're okay, how's the Nun?" Naruto asked honest concern making its way into his voice. Issei's face seemed to become less pale as he cradled the blond Nun in his arms.

"Asia seems fine but she was knocked unconscious before you got here." The brown haired Devil responded seemingly ignoring the slaughter of Stray Exorcists going on behind him, not that there were many left, seven at best from Naruto's count. The blond heard blood splatter on the wall behind him, make that six it seemed Kiba had finally disemboweled that troublesome bastard he had been fighting.

"Alright then time to get you out of here." Naruto stated looking up at the hole in the ceiling before smiling. The blond looked down and smiled Issei paled considerably at that one act alone. Naruto's left hand snaked out and grabbed the brown haired Devil by his collar before lifting him up to eye level a fierce grin on his face. "Don't worry you'll be fine." The son of Sparda said calmly taking careful aim. "Besides chances are I won't get to kill that Fallen Angel from before so make sure to give her a good thrashing for me!" Naruto stated pulling his arm back, Issei thrashing around in his grip.

"NOW FLY!" Naruto howled throwing Issei much like a professional pitcher would a baseball. His target? The courtyard ten meters above them.

"YOU CRAZY BASTARD!" Issei screamed a comical look of utter fear on his face as the brown haired Devil flew out of the basement and back into the Church proper, Naruto bent down and grabbed the Nun off of the floor putting her over his left shoulder and drawing out Rebellion. The Devil Arm seemed to be humming in its masters hand, ready, willing, wanting, to spill blood. The blond jumped, Rebellion leading as he fell into the battle claymore cutting out and bisecting an Exorcist at the waist. Five left, it was already over realistically. Kiba and Koneko alone could have killed the last five by themselves, Rebellion was just overkill. But as his father had once told him, there is no such thing as overkill, just varying levels of lethality.

Naruto tossed Asia to a surprised looking Kiba, twisting Rebellion behind his back and blocking a blow from behind like it was worthless. The blond pivoted sending the Sword of Light out wide as Rebellion cut in again, blood sprayed high into the air as the claymore like Devil Arm cut his opponents head clean off.

"Take the girl and go help Issei, I'll clean up the trash!" Naruto stated, putting himself between the two members of Rias's Peerage and the Stray Exorcists. In all honesty Naruto would have preferred just to cut and run with the girl right then and there but he wouldn't. Rias had accepted him as an ally, and more importantly he had come here as part of a team. With people who he was beginning to consider his friends it would dishonorable to cut and run when taking that into account. Naruto may have had a warped sense of honour but he did have one and perhaps even more importantly Uzumaki Naruto did not leave his friends behind when push came to shove. Well that and if what Naruto had been told was true Issei had likely been killed by that Fallen Angel from earlier, the kid probably wanted some pay back. Since that was the case he had better punch that bitch extra hard in the face, it would definitely make Issei feel better after all. It would make Naruto feel better as well for that matter, after all this Fallen Angel almost cost him the chance to heal his mother.

Kiba nodded and dashed upwards the Knight treating the jump like it wasn't worth noticing with Koneko hot on his heels. Naruto cracked his neck and smiled at the last four victims, Rebellion humming with anticipation. Red energy swirled around the blade and Naruto raced forward claymore extended before him a squelching sound echoed clearly around the open air basement as Rebellion disemboweled another Exorcist, four.

Naruto spun, Rebellion flying out wide and averting a strike before cutting back in and cleanly bisecting one of the Exorcists from left shoulder to right hip. Two. The blond pivoted, left foot coming up and kicking an attack away while he ducked to avoid another, Rebellion raced forward stabbing one opponent through the heart. Naruto pivoted again, wrenching the blade free with a spray of blood, Rebellion racing at another Exorcists throat, the man got his Sword of Light up, it wouldn't be enough. Naruto's attack blew clean through his opponents defence and Rebellion cleanly sliced open the Exorcists throat. One. Actually now that Naruto thought about it, where the hell did they get so many Stray Exorcists anyway? He leaned back allowing a Sword of Light to pass harmlessly by his head.

Oh well, slice first ask questions later.

The blond haired half Devil kicked off the ground and sent his body into a back flip. Narrowly avoiding the stab that would have pierced him through the heart. Rebellion came down, the cold steel of the Devil Arm slicing open the Exorcists head like a over ripe melon. Naruto landed behind his latest kill and flicked the blade, blood flying into the air before returning Rebellion to his back.

Zero.

Naruto kicked off the ground leaving the cooling corpses where they laid, his jump easily taking him up and over the edge of the hole that separated the courtyard and the now open air basement. It was times like this that Naruto thanked whatever, or whoever, was watching over him. That he didn't have to pay for property damage.

The courtyard, much like Naruto had expected, was in ruins. The beautiful gardens from before resembled little more than piles of rubble and almost dead plants. The blond stretched his awareness out allowing it to wash over everything, there the main entrance hall! From what Naruto could feel the fight was already over, but the Fallen Angel was still alive, Rias had only just entered the hall but he could feel Akeno still out in the forest for some reason but otherwise okay. The blond haired Devil strolled into the main room of the Church whistling a happy tune.

It looked like a typhoon had blown through the main hall, again thank anything and everything that he didn't have to pay for repairs. Naruto looked down at the Fallen Angel on the ground between Issei and Rias, the others simply watching on. The Nun, Asia Naruto corrected himself, was still out cold. The Fallen Angel however looked like it was in a bad way and if the wound on her face was any indication then Issei had socked her one right in the kisser, good boy!

"Issei!" The name was ripped from the lips of the Fallen Angel with emotion born of desperation. "Please, please help me! We can defeat this Devil together! Please help me I-I." She got no further, with the sound of blood spattering on stone Rebellion found a new home in the Fallen Angels heart causing Issei's eyes to go wide as Naruto seemingly appeared before him, the blonds left foot firmly planted in the middle of the Fallen Angels back. A look of complete and utter disgust on the half Devils face as he stared down at the dead Fallen Angel beneath his boot heel.

"At least die with some fucking dignity." Naruto hissed out at the corpse beneath him, her last little trick.

"Naruto-senpai, you're okay!" Issei yelled Naruto just yawned and flicked the blood off of Rebellion.

"Yes, yes I'm fine now don't you have a Nun to attend to?" The blond asked causing the brown haired Devil to nod his head and sprint back over the still unconscious Nun. Naruto just yawned again, dear sweet blood soaked hell it had been a long day.

**XXX**

Naruto grimaced moving a pawn forward, 'Charge my cannon fodder!' the blond haired half Devil roared inside of his head. This was a common scene these days, the Uzumaki VS the Gremory in Chess, Naruto always lost but hey at least it was something to do and besides their games were starting to get longer, if only slightly. This place was still the best place to hide from Ayame as well, no one had even looked for him here yet, though Naruto was starting to think that he may want to move house sometime soon. After all in order to avoid the woman he'd been sleeping in a hotel for the last three days. Maybe he should just face the music? He considered that option before discarding it, nope sorry shameless running away it was.

On a somewhat brighter note after Rias had convinced Asia to become her Bishop, which didn't really take that long. Not overly surprising considering that the Church didn't want her, her former bosses tried to kill her and would most likely try again if she was left alone and the one man that she depended on, Issei, was part of the Gremory Peerage. At any rate he had managed to convince Rias to lend him Asia's healing talents until his mother woke up, hell they actually considered it a Devil job so it wasn't like Asia was getting nothing out of it. Though Naruto had made the two Devils sign a Geass contract before revealing to them why he wanted Asia's healing talents, that way they couldn't tell anyone about his mother or why Naruto needed Asia. The blond trusted them to a degree but Naruto couldn't allow that information out without some kind of safe guard on it.

Speaking of Asia Naruto honestly wasn't sure he had ever met a more socially awkward person. Not that he found that to be particularly surprising after hearing just a little about her past. That would have been enough to make anyone socially awkward. Still the smaller blond was freaking adorable, kind of like a stray puppy really.

As for Rias herself well...she began chuckling like a madwoman when she found out that the Sacred Gear that Asia possessed was Twilight Healing. Not that she was alone, Naruto laughed with the kind of deranged enjoyment that you normally saw on B movie villains upon finding that particular piece of information out. The blond was quite sure he had freaked out every member of the Occult Research Club with that one action.

'Fuck' Naruto swore internally as Rias moved a bishop forward and effectively destroyed his front-line attack. The blond countered by sending out one of his knights, wiping Rias's bishop off the board, there was a certain amount of vindictive pleasure to be found in that action.

"So how's the treatment coming?" Rias asked out of the blue, Naruto just frowned at the chessboard as the busty red head moved another piece forward.

"As well as can be expected." The blond replied, "From what I've been able to find out there has been a definite increase in brain activity so we're moving in the right direction but I am a little annoyed that I can't have Asia use Twilight Healing to make Kaa-chan's body go back to where it was before her accident. Unfortunately that would raise to many unwanted questions by the doctors, namely how a person who can't move was slowly but surely getting stronger. So I'll hold off on having Asia do that until Kaa-chan wakes up, then slowly but surely we can make her muscles stronger so that the rehabilitation will take less time but for now all I can do is wait." Naruto finished, moving his knight again. Rias simply nodded and moved her rook forward, taking out one of Naruto's pawns in the process.

"I see, well it would be nice to meet her once she's up and ready for visitors." The Crimson Haired Ruin Princess responded. Naruto nodded in return, he had planned to introduce Rias to his mother anyway, so long as the red head didn't say a single thing about Devils. No need to overload his Kaa-chan after all. Naruto still had no idea how his mother was going to take Minato remarrying, not well would be his guess. Then again maybe his Kaa-chan would surprise him, she had always been an amazing woman, at least in Naruto's eyes. But the blond knew he was biased, all children idolised their parents after all and Naruto was not blind to his own blind idolisation of his mother even after all this time.

"That would be fine just nothing about Devils alright. I want to break that to her personally," The blond responded just getting a chuckle and a laugh out of the red head before him. From that point on the two sat in a comfortable silence and continued their chess game. Even at this point it was obvious that Rias would be the winner, Naruto's pieces were already making a fighting retreat as they lost ground. The game finished just as the bell rang for the next class though Naruto suspected that was by design, for the last half of that game Rias had been playing with him. The red head stood and threw her blond haired counterpart a smile that was mixed with exasperation and fondness.

"You don't have to leave the Club room if you don't want to Naruto and you're more than welcome at the meeting but that won't start till sundown today so if you do leave feel free to come back for that. However please lock the door on your way out if you end up going out." Rias told him, Naruto smiled in return.

"Of course Buchou!" The blond half Devil responded causing Rias to sigh.

"You know if you're going to call me that you could at least join the Occult Research Club." The red head stated pouting, Naruto just gave her a flat look in return. He had fallen for that look more than once but he was finally starting to build up a resistance to it.

"Nah, I just call you that because I feel like it any way." The blond replied prompting Rias to open her mouth to argue, Naruto flicked a finger at the clock on the wall. "Aren't you late Buchou?" He inquired, false concern lacing his tone. Rias just gave him a scathing glare.

"Naruto, sometimes I think I hate you." The Crimson Haired Ruin Princess stated, Naruto just replied with a huge grin, his eyes crinkling slightly.

"I bask in your hate Buchou!" The blond replied happily as Rias walked out of the room the sound of her exasperated cry of AHHGRRRR could be heard from within the room causing Naruto's grin to grow even larger. The blond pulled a book out of his bag, he wasn't normally much of a reader but Fate/Zero was fucking amazing! The door to the club room opened and Naruto looked away from his book to the new arrival. Issei stood there look straight at him, mouth locked in a grim frown, eyes hard. Naruto perked up at the look of those eyes, those were some nice eyes. The eyes of someone that had made a decision and was planning to stick to it no matter what. Issei strode forward until he was standing right in front of the half Devil, Naruto's blue eyes regarded his brown haired counterpart with a mixture of amusement and curiosity. Issei swallowed before falling to his knees and placed his head on the floor.

"PLEASE, TRAIN ME!"

Now that, that he hadn't been expecting.

**Of Demons and Devils Chapter Three End.**


End file.
